Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Teaching
Series
Special Focus in
Spanish Literature
Teaching Poetry
For more information about equity and access in principle and practice, please send an email
to apequity@collegeboard.org.
© 2005 The College Board. All rights reserved. College Board, AP Central, APCD, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP
Vertical Teams, Pre-AP, SAT, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. Admitted Class Evaluation
Service, CollegeEd, connect to college success, MyRoad, SAT Professional Development, SAT Readiness Program, and
Setting the Cornerstones are trademarks owned by the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the
College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. All other products and services herein may be trademarks of
their respective owners. Permission to use copyrighted College Board materials may be requested online at:
www.collegeboard.com/inquiry/cbpermit.html.
“Las seis cuerdas” by Federico García Lorca © Herederos de Federico García Lorca from Obras Completas (Galaxia
Gutenberg, 1996 edition). All rights reserved. For information regarding rights and permissions, please contact
lorca@artslaw.co.uk , or William Peter Kosmas, Esq., 8 Franklin Square, London W14 9UU, Great Britain.
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1
Poesía...............................................................................................................................................2
Gustavo C. Fares
El poder del sonido ........................................................................................................................4
Ana Colbert
Aspectos culturales, temáticos y estilísticos del análisis poético..............................................8
Marta Loyola
The Teaching and Interpretation of Poetry............................................................................. 21
Andrew Debicki
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: “Hombres necios…” ..................................................................... 29
Gustavo Fares
Garcilaso y Góngora frente a frente:
dos variantes de un mismo tema renacentista ........................................................... 40
Salvatore Poeta
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer ............................................................................................................ 52
Sandra Williamson
Twentieth-Century Spanish-American Literature: Verse ..................................................... 56
Gene Bell-Villada
Using the Works of Pablo Neruda to Teach Poetry Analysis ............................................... 68
Sandra Williamson
Literatura española avanzada: el análisis de la poesía ............................................................ 74
Sample Essay Prompts for Poetry ............................................................................................. 77
Rita Goldberg
Practice with Multiple-Choice Poetry Analysis
Sandra Williamson, with contributions by Bonnie Bowen and Jim Cardella
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 88
Jim Cardella
Questions from the 1985 AP Spanish Literature Exam ............................................ 90
Questions from the 1988 AP Spanish Literature Exam .......................................... 101
Questions from the 1994 AP Spanish Literature Exam .......................................... 104
Questions from the 1999 AP Spanish Literature Exam .......................................... 107
Questions from the 2003 AP Spanish Literature Exam .......................................... 110
Vocabulario útil para hablar de la literatura ............................................................ 117
Palabras que denotan sentimientos, actitudes, o puntos de vista .......................... 118
Palabras que describen tono....................................................................................... 121
Palabras que describen estilos .................................................................................... 125
El mundo poético de Aurora Luque:
Entrevista realizada por Marina Llorente ................................................................. 127
Contributors .............................................................................................................................. 134
Important Note:
The following materials are organized around a particular theme that reflects important
topics in AP Spanish Literature. They are intended to provide teachers with professional
development ideas and resources relating to that theme. However, the chosen theme cannot,
and should not, be taken as any indication that a particular topic will appear on the AP
Exam.
The Teaching Series
Estimados Colegas,
Bienvenidos al curso y a este taller para profesores de AP Literatura. Este año el manual
incluye nuevos materiales pedagógicos que esperamos sean interesantes y útiles. Con este
innovador modelo de manual los participantes en el taller podrán llevarse lecciones
prácticas, actividades para el salón de clase y artículos relacionados con las obras literarias
del curso. A partir ya de este año, los materiales se enfocarán cada año en un aspecto
crítico, un tema literario, un género o una destreza lingüística. El primer manual de este
tipo es éste que tiene usted entre las manos, que se centra en la enseñanza de la poesía. En
otras ediciones posteriores se cambiará el enfoque con el fin de mantener el dinamismo y
la utilidad de los talleres.
Uno de los aspectos más atractivos del curso de literatura es la libertad que tiene el
profesor para organizarlo de acuerdo con sus propios criterios. El acercamiento a la
poesía que se presenta en el manual de este año ejemplifica el estudio de los géneros
literarios. Aunque en el manual naturalmente no es posible presentar todo lo que hay que
saber sobre la poesía ni analizar todos los poemas de la lista, confiamos en que todos los
participantes en el taller encontrarán materiales y conceptos nuevos en los ejemplos.
Nos agrada mucho compartir con ustedes el excelente trabajo de unos colegas muy
talentosos cuyo profundo conocimiento de las obras y los poetas y del análisis poético se
ve en esta rica y variada colección de recursos didácticos. Además de disfrutar de una
entrevista con la poeta Aurora Luque, ustedes podrán aprovechar para sus clases los
ejercicios e ideas aportados por un distinguido grupo de colegas de nivel secundario y
universitario.
Poesía
Gustavo C. Fares
Lawrence University
Appleton, Wisconsin
No toda poesía es verso ni todo verso, poesía. Es posible utilizar el lenguaje tanto en prosa
como en verso para expresar belleza, sentimientos, ideas y emociones. Frente a una prosa
que se puede designar como “poética” existe también un lenguaje en versos que explica o
narra más que expresa, sin dejar por eso de ser poesía. Unos buenos ejemplos de este
último caso son los poemas homéricos, narraciones no de sentimientos subjetivos, sino
históricas y míticas que la forma poética ayudaba a memorizar y a transmitir de
generación en generación.
Si ambas formas del lenguaje, prosa y poesía, pueden tratar temas similares, la diferencia
entre ellas no está, pues, en lo que dicen, sino en la forma cómo lo hacen, en la
versificación que caracteriza a la poesía. Generalmente, aunque no siempre, esta
versificación incluye una cierta musicalidad, un ritmo. A modo introductorio, entonces,
propongo que llamemos poesía al lenguaje que se usa con diferentes fines, expresivos o
narrativos, pero que está formalmente distribuido en versos o en conjuntos de versos. Las
reglas y demás aspectos técnicos de la poesía se describen en la disciplina llamada poética.
Para dar al lenguaje esa musicalidad antes notada, las palabras en la poesía se combinan
de maneras ya fijas, siguiendo esquemas de larga data, ya originales, sobre todo a partir
del siglo pasado, sin por eso dejar de lado, en la mayoría de los casos, el ritmo y la
musicalidad. En la poesía en español los elementos más importantes para la versificación
son dos: el número de sílabas de cada verso, o métrica, y el ritmo, dado por la acentuación
del conjunto de palabras. Para poder determinar la métrica se debe identificar el tipo de
verso, analizando la acentuación de su última palabra. Esta puede ser: aguda, grave,
esdrújula o sobresdrújula de acuerdo al acento. A estos dos elementos, métrica y ritmo,
debe agregarse un tercero, la rima, producto de las estructuras fonéticas que se combinan
formando sonidos coincidentes. La rima es la igualdad o repetición de sonidos en dos o
más versos, contándose a partir de la última vocal acentuada. Hay dos tipos de rima: i)
Las palabras en la poesía se ordenan en versos. El verso puede definirse como un con-
junto breve de palabras, que generalmente expresa ideas cortas, y que se ordena, en la
mayoría de los casos, de acuerdo al ritmo y a la musicalidad del lenguaje. Por el número
de sílabas los versos se dividen en arte menor y en arte mayor. Los de arte menor son los
que tienen de dos a ocho sílabas y los de arte mayor tienen de nueve sílabas en adelante.
Un grupo de versos forma una estrofa. Una estrofa se forma por varios versos, los cuales
comparten alguna característica de ritmo, medida o rima. Un conjunto de estrofas que
guardan relación entre sí por medio del número de sílabas y la rima forma un poema.
Cuando entre los versos de una estrofa no existe una relación de acuerdo a las reglas que
mencionamos antes (número de sílabas o rima), se denominan versos libres, blancos o
sueltos. Los versos sueltos son aquellos que no riman con otros versos que sí riman
dentro de la estrofa. Cuando los versos no se ajustan a un número de sílabas ni tienen
rima entre ellos se les llaman versos libres.
Hay, además de la poesía descrita, otros tipos de poesía que desafían, de diversas mane-
ras, las convenciones explicadas más arriba. Como hemos dicho, el elemento básico de la
poesía es el lenguaje, formado por las palabras, y éstas son sonidos con un significado, un
sentido que, cuando se escribe, queda expresado en signos visuales. Los mismos han sido
enfatizados, a costa del significado, por algunos tipos de poesía contemporánea, que
presta más atención a las características visuales del signo que a su sentido. La misma ha
encontrado cultores tanto en América Latina, como en Estados Unidos y en Europa, y
debe tenerse en cuenta cuando se realiza un estudio de la poesía.
Lo dicho en esta breve introducción acerca de la poesía puede ayudar a los estudiantes de
español a ir conociendo las estructuras creadoras de la lengua, a la vez que lo familiariza
con aspectos quizás nuevos en el curso de sus estudios secundarios. Verso, musicalidad,
ritmo, estrofa, poema, acentuación, aspectos visuales, son temas que enriquecen el estudio
de la lengua, aumentan la capacidad crítica y hasta creadora de los estudiantes, y los
embarcan en un proceso de apreciación de lo que estudian. Los estudiantes que conocen
el placer de la lengua, y no sólo su rigor, hacen propio el aprendizaje y lo transforman en
algo placentero, fructífero y duradero.
Cuando enseño poesía, empiezo preguntando a mis alumnos qué es lo que distingue a
este género de la prosa: qué es exactamente la poesía. Tras discutir las respuestas habitu-
ales—emoción, belleza, imaginación, riqueza expresiva, ritmo y rima—trato de que los
estudiantes descubran y definan su rasgo esencial, su elemento claramente distintivo.
Ellos mismos pueden recordar con facilidad ejemplos de poemas sin rima y de prosa rica
en emoción, imaginación y ritmo. No es difícil llegar a la conclusión de que aunque todo
género literario contiene los dos elementos de las ideas—contenido y estructura, o
forma—el equilibrio en la poesía se inclina hacia el segundo. La brevedad relativa de un
poema requiere mayor intensidad y concentración semántica y expresiva. La prosa
presenta y explica, mientras que la poesía sugiere y evoca.
¿Cómo, pues, consigue la poesía tal densidad expresiva? El poeta usa un lenguaje rico en
recursos retóricos: imágenes, metáforas y símbolos que provocan una complejidad de
emociones y sensaciones; palabras con fuerte carga connotativa y ambigüedad de
interpretaciones; sonidos que añaden sugerencias más allá del mero significado de la
palabra. Combinadas, las selecciones del poeta crean un intrincado efecto estético que
apela a la mente e impregna los sentidos, enriqueciendo el significado a través de la
estimulación sensorial.
En esta breve lección, me voy a limitar a unos cuantos poemas que utilizo para despertar
en mis estudiantes la sensibilidad hacia el uso del sonido. Es, por supuesto, indispensable
leer el poema en voz alta y permitir que ritmo y sonido, junto con su contenido
semántico, penetren en el lector de forma intuitiva y emotiva.
Luz tú
Luz vertical,
luz tú.
luz vibrante,
luz tú.
Inmediatamente después de leer el poema pregunto: «¿Me podrías explicar qué dice el
autor? ¿Qué te hace sentir?»
Los estudiantes captan que la voz lírica, él, está exaltando al tú-ella, rebajándose a sí
mismo. Un análisis detallado de los paralelismos y antítesis en los conceptos y palabras
del poema prueba la idea que habían percibido intuitivamente. Pido a los estudiantes que
escuchen de nuevo, animándolos a que oigan el sentido, a que sean receptivos a los
efectos del sonido. Perciben así el de los seis rápidos versos de luz seguidos y contrastados
por el laboriosamente lento verso final, negra, ciega, sorda…
…
Son mi música mejor
aquilones,
el estrépito y temblor
de los cables sacudidos,
del negro mar los bramidos
y el rugir de mis cañones.
Y del trueno
al son violento,
y del viento
al rebramar
Los estudiantes oyen los sonidos fuertes y resonantes de las erres al final de las palabras y
en las sílabas compuestas, que junto con la sonoridad cortante de las tes y /k/ (letras c y q)
refuerzan la fiereza y bravuconería de las que el pirata hace alarde.
El clamoroso autorretrato del pirata contrasta con la impresión de las eles de la Rima LIII
de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer:
Los sonidos ligeros y líquidos evocan el ruido alegre y juguetón de las golondrinas contra
los cristales de las ventanas.
El ritmo es, claramente, no sólo un elemento esencial de la poesía, sino uno que toca muy
de cerca la sensibilidad de los estudiantes. La práctica de la lectura en voz alta, observando
las sinalefas, respetando acentos y pausas y, especialmente, evitando el defecto común de
detenerse al final del verso, ayuda a hacerles receptivos a los aspectos más sutiles del
poema.
El estribillo del poema “El poeta a caballo” de Juan Ramón Jiménez avanza rítmicamente:
A caballo va el poeta...
¡Qué tranquilidad violeta!
Los versos consiguen recrear no sólo el trote del caballo, sino un trote apacible y
sosegado. En la “Canción de jinete”, de Federico García Lorca, podemos oír también los
pasos del caballo sobre el llano vacío.
En el “Romance de la luna, luna”, de Lorca, los versos “El niño la mira, mira./ El niño la
está mirando,” “El aire la vela, vela./ El aire la está velando,” replican el efecto
hipnotizador de la luna sobre el niño. Al mismo tiempo sugestionan a los lectores,
llevándonos a aceptar lo inaceptable, transportándonos hacia el mítico universo
lorquiano.
Los dos disparatados primeros versos del poema de Lorca del mismo nombre, “Arbolé,
arbolé/ seco y verdé”, así como los tres iniciales de “Sensemayá”, provocan el mismo
conjuro seductivo: adéntrate en este mundo misterioso, parecen insinuar y abandona tu
desconfianza.
Aunque no está incluido en nuestra lista, el poema lorquiano “La cogida y la muerte” del
Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, es otro modelo magnífico para observar los múltiples y
variados efectos del sonido. Obsérvese el ritmo creado por la constante repetición, 26
veces, del mismo verso -A las cinco de la tarde-, eco del doblón de una campana que toca
a muerte; los últimos versos, “¡Eran las cinco en todos los relojes!/ ¡Eran las cinco en
sombra de la tarde!”, cierran el poema con la pesada y deliberada gravidez de las oes y las
aes.
El sonido, como las figuras retóricas más efectivas, es especialmente eficaz porque afecta
al lector de manera indirecta, no obvia: revela sin describir, conmueve sin explicar, cap-
tura sin intentar convencer.
La mayor parte de los textos proviene de la lista de lecturas del curso de AP Literatura. El resto se puede obtener en
www.portaldepoesia.com y www.poesia-inter.net
El objetivo de este capítulo es que pueda servir como guía didáctica en el estudio y análisis
de la poesía desde una nueva perspectiva cultural, temática y estilística.
Introducción
Hace unos dos mil quinientos años Aristóteles, en su Arte Poética y Arte Retórica, escribió
unas teorías sobre la poesía que aún hoy día pueden aplicarse en el análisis literario. La
poesía, del griego poiein, significa “producir, componer, hacer o inventar”; nos referimos
a la poesía especifícamente como la creación literaria en verso expresada por medio de la
palabra.1 La primera semana del curso, los estudiantes leen y discuten de una manera
esquemática, las teorías, las imágenes poéticas, y las figuras retóricas indicadas por
Aristóteles. Aunque en apariencia, difícil, los estudiantes sienten una especie de atracción
por dilucidar las teorías más básicas con la certeza de que las pondrán en práctica durante
el curso.
Según Rafael Lapesa, “A Aristóteles se debe la primera Poética, tratado en que analiza el
carácter fundamental del arte—que para el es la imitación—y los distintos generos
poéticos.”2 Lapesa añade que, “Aristóteles señaló como fundamento del arte la mímesis o
imitación de la Naturaleza, y su doctrina no ha sido contradicha en lo esencial hasta
nuestros días.”3 Sin embargo, más que una imitación debemos tal vez referirnos a la
creación liter-aria como una interpretación del poeta de su propio sentir, de la realidad
que lo circunda, de la realidad histórica, y aun de temas metafísicos.
II. Localización
Nos daremos cuenta de si es un texto independiente o un fragmento. Señalaremos el
género literario a que pertenece.
VI. Conclusión
Resaltaremos los rasgos communes de nuestras observaciones, que confirman el principio
fundamental. No entraremos en detalles.4
Una práctica
Un buen ejercicio estilístico para los estudiantes es guiarse por el bosquejo de Correa y
Carreter al hacer un comentario sobre un poema. A continuación se hará un análisis
esquemático de los últimos dos tercetos del siguiente soneto de Garcilaso de la Vega:
• La lectura atenta del texto nos revela que la dicción es sencilla y fácil de
comprender; no hay significado oscuro en el lenguaje, ni sintaxis muy complicada.
• Localización: El soneto “En tanto que de rosa y azucena” fue escrito durante el
Renacimiento en España en el primer tercio del siglo XVI; si hacemos una
comparación con las “Coplas” de Jorge Manrique observaremos cuan diferentes
son ambas en el elemento temático. En Manrique predomina la influencia
medieval, o sea, prevalece la inclinación religiosa. La vida, según Manrique, es
solamente un camino hacia la jornada final que es el cielo, no sólo no es necesario
disfrutarla, sino que el placer de ese gozo puede ocasionar dolor. Por lo contrario,
la visión que Garcilaso de la Vega proyecta del carpe diem es humanista,
renacentista.
• Determinación del tema: la interpretación del consejo y la advertencia en el
lenguaje del soneto, que es connatural al tema de la fugacidad de la vida. El
Los romances
Durante la última centuria de la época medieval europea comenzaron a aparecer en
España unas baladas, posteriormente denominadas “romances” por estar compuestas en
lengua vernácula, que se caracterizaban por su inclinación popular. El romance, que nace
hacia el siglo XIV, ha perdurado a traves de los siglos, pero no fue hasta el siglo XVI que
los romances vinieron a escribirse; paradójicamente, poco después dejaron de
componerse. Con la llegada del romanticismo y el retorno a temas históricos-legendarios,
poetas, como el Duque de Rivas y José de Espronceda en el siglo XIX, volvieron a
escribirlos.
Influencias italianas
Con la llegada de corrientes humanistas y renacentistas de Italia, los temas y la métrica
cambiaron en España. El amor platónico, temas mitológicos, y aquellos relacionados con
la naturaleza, fueron introducidos en el país. La métrica italiana tendria una influencia
decisiva en la poesía española. Ademas del innovador verso endecasílabo y el uso variado
de distintos metros en un mismo poema (endecasílabo y septasílabo, por ejemplo), los
poetas también utilizaron el soneto y la lira para poemas más cultos o de temas
filosóficos, continuando, a la vez, la versificación popular del verso octosílabo.
El Barroco
Las corrientes artísticas y literarias que sucedieron alas renacentistas trajeron consigo
cambios tan radicales que, al correr de los años, y a pesar de que las nuevas tendencias
nacieron en Roma, los amantes del clasicismo la denominaron despectivamente
“barroco,” cuyo significado de “grotesco,” no se aplica actualmente. Es un hecho
significativo que el nuevo estilo haya tenido una influencia enorme en la expresión de
todas las artes. En la literatura española el Barroco se distinguió por dos tendencias
Por el contrario, Quevedo, más fácil de leer por su vocabulario inteligible, por otro lado se
dificultaba en la interpretación debido a que sus versos encerraban conceptos oscurísimos
de índole moral, amorosos o de angustia por la muerte. Sin embargo, también escribió
composiciones fáciles de entender con chispa cómica o burlesca. Del otro lado del
océano, y a finales del mismo siglo XVII que fue testigo de las personalidades volátiles e
ideas literarias conflictivas entre Góngora y Quevedo, una joven mejicana amante del
saber se dedicaba a escribir la obra más impresionante que surgiera en la celda de un
convento en Hispanoamérica. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, la primera poetisa
hispanoamericana, fue influida por las tendencias barrocas del Siglo de Oro, y, sobre
todo, por Góngora y Quevedo. Por consiguiente, debido al léxico cultista, sus poemas
eran en ocasiones, difíciles de comprender. Hagamos un breve análisis estilístico y
tematico del soneto “A su retrato,”
Un análisis estilístico del lenguaje literario del soneto, revela que la anáfora salta a simple
vista como ejemplo de una de las figuras retóricas (de lenguaje o dicción). La repetición
“es un,” “es una” al principio de las ultimas dos estrofas es fácil de distinguir por los
estudiantes. Un ejemplo de otro tipo de figura 1ógica es el clímax o gradación, como
Es también necesario señalar otro tipo de lenguaje figurado en este soneto, el tropo de la
alegoría. La alegoría es una metáfora continuada a lo largo de un poema. En este soneto la
poetisa compara negativamente el retrato con la persona real que es ella. Al retrato le
llama un “engaño colorido,” y compara al retrato que es polvo, con lo que se convertirá el
hombre despues que muera: polvo, concepto de “memento homo.”
El tono y el tema son ambos filosóficos, el paso de los años trae el desengaño de la vejez y
para ella un retrato es falso puesto que la persona ya no luce igual a como estaba
representada. La comparación metafórica del retrato con “falsos silogismos de colores” es
brillante. Se puede observar la influencia conceptista de Quevedo en esta metáfora que
compara al retrato de manera abstracta con un razonamiento colorido pero falso. El
retrato es una desilusión para la vanidad, representa el concepto de la inmediatez
temporal de alguien que por más hermosa que sea, muy pronto envejecerá, morirá, y
desaparecerá.
Es posible que los estudiantes se den cuenta que la poetisa refuta el tema del carpe diem
prevaleciente en algunas creaciones literarias del período barroco, y en este soneto opta
por ahondar en temas como la fugacidad de la vida y el aspecto temporal de la belleza,
que desaparece tan rápidamente como “una flor al viento dedicada.” La estructura
metafórica del lenguaje prevalece en la obra poética de Sor Juana. En este poema el retrato
es comparado con “un engaño colorido,” “engaño del sentido,” “un vano artificio del
cuidado,” “es una flor,” “una necia diligencia,” y en el último verso, el clímax es también
una metáfora, dado que el retrato es “cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.”
En uno de los sonetos que Sor Juana escribe a una rosa, la rosa representa dos símbolos, el
de la belleza y el de la fugacidad del tiempo. A continuación los dos tercetos del poema,
Es conveniente que el estudiante sepa identificar con facilidad el uso continuo del
apóstrofe y la prosopopeya o personificación, figuras patéticas cuyo fin es el de despertar
emociones. El poema entero es un ejemplo de una invocación; el primer verso comienza
dirigiéndose a la rosa en segunda persona, “Rosa divina … eres … tu fragant.” En los dos
tercetos anteriormente citados, se continua el uso del apóstrofe, “tu pompa, … desdeñas,
… de tu caduco ser das,” y el apóstrofe del último verso que, al mismo tiempo que es
ejemplo de lenguaje paradógico, lo es también de personificación, “viviendo engañas y
muriendo enseñas.”
El Romanticismo
El siglo XIX fue testigo de varios movimientos artísticos y literarios que se sucedieron
unos a otros. Los movimientos que nos conciernen, por su estrecha relación con el género
poético, son el Romanticismo ye Modernismo. En ambos lados del Atlántico el mundo
literario vio surgir verdaderas estrellas de la poesía que iluminaron el horizonte de poetas
venideros siguiendo sus pasos bien entrado el siglo XX.
Considerado por muchos como el más grande poeta del siglo XIX, Bécquer, en la breve
obra que nos dejó, contribuyó significativamente a cambiar el tema, el tono, y la
estructura de la poesía moderna. Los estudiantes deben prestar atención al uso del
cromatismo y a la musicalidad de sus versos como se puede observar en la “Rima XI:”
El Modernismo
Una década después de la muerte de Bécquer en 1870, surgieron en varios países de
Hispanoamérica voces poéticas que influidas por Bécquer y por dos corrientes literarias
francesas, el parnasianismo y el simbolismo, contribuirían a lo que algunos críticos de
literatura consideran el primer movimiento literario con raíces hispanoamericanas: el
Modernismo. Estos poetas fueron Julián del Casal y José Martí de Cuba, Manuel
Gutiérrez Nájera de México, José Asunción Silva de Colombia, y la figura más
representativa de este movimiento, Rubén Darío de Nicaragua.
Poesía vanguardista
La primera mitad del siglo XX fue rica en producción poética en ambos lados del
Atlántico. Poetas vanguardistas surgieron en casi todos los paises de habla hispana. Un
representante de poesía vanguardista de la Generación del 27 en España fue Federico
García Lorca, uno de los grandes poetas españoles del siglo XX. Su poesía es muy variada,
llena de imágenes sensoriales, de cromatismo, del uso de la sinestesia, de varios símbolos
sensuales o relativos a la naturaleza, que repite tanto en su obra dramática como en la
obra poética. García Lorca utilizaba temas como el del gitano que, idealizado por él,
repetirá a menudo en Romancero gitano, así como la constante alusión a la naturaleza que
puede observarse a traves de toda su obra, y la frecuente mención alas ciudades o nos de
Andalucia.
Método de enseñanza
1. La lectura de teorías poéticas, aunque de modo muy conciso y claro, para que los
estudiantes puedan entenderlas.
2. El aprendizaje a través de la práctica, del tema, del tono, del uso de imágenes
poéticas y figuras retóricas de toda creación literaria. Es decir, que aunque se
comience con una obra en prosa (novela, cuento), o con un drama (comedia,
tragedia), el proceso es siempre igual, se interpreta y analiza el lenguaje.
3. Cuando se comienza con la poesía, los estudiantes deben primero aprender los
pasos para poder efectuar un análisis literario, con el fin de practicarlos
debidamente. Luego, y con motivo de introducción a la poesía, los estudiantes
leen y analizan el “Poema 20” del poeta vanguardista chileno Pablo Neruda, por el
gran número de imágenes poéticas y figuras retóricas que les sirve para poner en
práctica lo aprendido. A continuación unos ejemplos del lenguaje figurativo:
Cuando se determina que los estudiantes pueden manejar los terminos literarios con sol-
tura y llevar a cabo un análisis interpretativo de la poesía, se suele estudiar los siguientes
poemas: “Tu me quieres blanca” de Alfonsina Storni, el “Poema 20” de Neruda, las Rimas
de Bécquer, algunos de los Versos sencillos de José Martí, y uno de los sonetos de Sor
Juana Ines de la Cruz. No obstante, es probable que con la nueva lista de lectura, sea más
adecuado estudiar los poemas en orden cronológico, empezando por los Romances.
Conclusión
Notas
1. Rafael Lapesa, Introducción a los estudios literarias, 2a ed. (Madrid: Ediciones
Cátedra, 1979), 9-11.
2. Ibid., 12.
3. Ibid., 17.
5. Angel del Río, Antología general de la literatura española (New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1960), 267.
6. Ibid., 62.
8. Ibid., 135.
9. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Rimas y leyendas, Edición de José Ángel Crespo Lloreda
(Madrid: Grupo Anaya, 1989), 43-4.
11. José Martí, Obras literaria (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1978), 98-99.
For many students, “meaning” refers to facts and ideas and is limited to physical and
social sciences, and perhaps to philosophy and history. Yet, if we were to ask a student
what made a particular experience meaningful, an answer stated entirely in terms of ideas
and facts would be incomplete. A fuller answer would have to involve attitudes, feelings,
and sensations—subjective realities—but the very process of describing them would rob
the experience of its immediacy and would make the communication incomplete. At this
point, the student might try to recreate, through word selection, analogy, and sound, that
complex of ideas, sensations, and feelings that the experience represented, whether it be
in rhymed or unrhymed language—and he or she would then take on the task of the poet.
The poem sketches a scene at sunset. Without intricate devices or any complexities, it
conveys, as Carlos Bousoño has noted, a definite feeling of heaviness and a negative
vision, perhaps a sense of loss.3 When I ask students to express what they feel upon
reading it, negative terms abound. In trying to clarify how such feelings are evoked, we
note the frequency of words connected with darkness and negativity: “morado,” “negro,”
and “sombra.” When the red sunset is described as embers, this description emphasizes
its role as an ending, a diminishing; the reference to a grove of cypresses might evoke an
image of a cemetery for a Spaniard (since cemeteries are often lined with cipreses). The
selection of vocabulary and its gloomy effects are more noticeable because the accents fall,
precisely, on “ascuas,” “crepúsculo,” “morado,” “negro,” and “sombra.” And “agua
muerta,” although it is a set phrase meaning “still water,” conjures up an echo of death.
The poem is an excellent example of how word selection and rhythm create a subjective
experience.
These effects are supported by the poem’s structure. The work begins by focusing on the
horizon far away and then gradually brings us forward to the cypress grove, the fountain,
and the statue. Like a movie camera zooming in, it brings us closer, only to end on the
absolute stillness of the water—and on the word “muerta.” Note that the poem is written
in eleven-syllable lines (a “learned” rhythm in Spanish). It ends, however, with a shorter,
seven-syllable line. This creates a ponderous effect on the text and a slowing down at the
end, in addition to a version of a traditional Spanish form, a combination of seven- and
eleven-syllable lines.
The gloominess of the poem is counterbalanced, to some extent, by the fountain, the
statue of Cupid, and the reference to a dream. The words “alado” and “desnudo,” as well
as “Amor,” evoke a sense of life. Class discussion might center, indeed, on the contrast
between these words and the ones noted previously. Students more disposed to an
optimistic view will point to “alado” and “Amor” to argue against those readers stressing
the poem’s gloomy effect. In the final analysis, the positive terms seem to become
submerged, just as the Amor turns out to be but a stone statue and its dream a silent one.
But there is a certain tension engendered here (much as there is tension within almost
any vision we might have of an experience).
Where does all of this leave us? The poem, a sketch of a sunset, evokes in us a mood of
stillness and gloom, associations of loss, perhaps even of death. It embodies, in words, a
basic feeling that we all have of time passing and things ending, balanced to some degree
by an overwhelming sense of life. It would be a mistake, I think, to formulate the poem’s
meaning in more conceptual terms, or to see in it some message about death and finality.
Its value lies, rather, in recreating within us a mood.
The effects of metaphor are well illustrated in the beginning of the poem “35 bujías,”
written in the 1920s by Pedro Salinas.
By comparing the light that can come from a light bulb in a ceiling fixture to a princess,
the poem forces us to see it in a new and unexpected way. Instead of an ordinary
happening that we take for granted, the turning on of the light becomes something
magical and delightful, akin to the arrival of a beautiful woman at the male speaker’s
behest. The possibility of obtaining something so wonderful by the simple act of touching
a switch highlights the miraculous nature of a phenomenon of our modern world: electric
light. (The poem’s impact would have been particularly strong in 1920s, when the light
from a 35-watt bulb would have been a novelty.) By comparing the bulb to a glass castle
imprisoning the woman (light) whom he summons, the speaker evokes the remote world
of medieval stories and the traditional tale of a princess rescued by a hero, intensifying the
sense of romantic fantasy.
There is, however, another dimension to this metaphor and poem. By making himself
into a powerful hero who summons the light-princess at will, the speaker may also lead us
to react against him and to judge his somewhat arrogant (and sexist) pride at controlling
another human being (and a modern discovery). The poet may have invented this self-
satisfied speaker not only to make us consider a modern invention in a new and exciting
way but also to offer a subtle, ironic perspective on modern man’s confidence in his
control of his world. The metaphor has taken us beyond a literal vision of our reality to a
complex vision and experience, not reducible to any simple message.
The poem raises, therefore, another issue: When reading a poem, students often assume
that the voice speaking is the poet’s voice. Yet in a poem, as in a short story or novel,
perspective and point of view are often manipulated for artistic effect. This is most
evident in dramatic monologues, but occurs in other kinds of poems as well.
La guitarra
hace llorar a los sueños.
El sollozo de las almas
perdidas
se escapa por su boca
redonda.
Y como la tarántula
teje una gran estrella
para cazar suspiros,
que flotan en su negro
aljibe de madera.5
From the outset, the personification of the guitar and its active role give it prominence
over the guitarist or the setting. The guitarist is never mentioned directly; only his hand
playing the strings is alluded to by the image of the tarantula. The focus falls on the music
and its effect.
From the beginning, the guitar’s song is likened to crying that exteriorizes dreams and
suggests the whimpering of lost souls. The music gives expression to feelings that cannot
be explained or easily conveyed. The metaphor is objectively based: a guitar’s sound
comes out of its sound hole or “mouth.” The final image of the guitar as a well from
which sighs come develops the same metaphor and stresses the instrument’s value in
evoking hidden feelings.
The image of the tarantula in line 7 may well cause surprise. It can be explained literally
as a reference to the guitarist’s hand playing the guitar, with motions that resemble the
spider’s weaving of its star-shaped web. Its initial effect, in any event, introduces an
element of menace. Yet the image of a tarantula weaving a star suggests that something
ugly and dangerous can produce beauty. This image advances the theme observed earlier
in the poem: the magical capability of the guitar to express hidden feelings and produce
beauty.
We could also comment on other aspects of the poem: the use of parallel short lines of
verse (lines 4 and 6), which stresses the link between the objective reality (“boca
redonda”) and the subjective feelings (“almas perdidas”); the way in which subjectivity is
highlighted by “llorar” and “sollozo”; and a shift in emphasis from the expression of
emotions in the first part of the poem to the objectification of these emotions in beauty in
the latter section. All of this, however, would merely confirm the experience conveyed by
the metaphor. “Las seis cuerdas” gives us an excellent example of the use of metaphor in
Lorca’s poetry and illustrates one of his main themes: the value of art overcoming the
limitations of life.
For similar reasons, I avoid excessive use of the word “symbol” in the earlier stages of the
study of poetry. Ultimately, this term can be useful if we do not limit its definition to
simple one-to-one correspondences between an element in the poem and an abstract
idea. Students often want to see elements in a poem as symbols in order to simplify the
poem and reduce it to a conceptual statement. This process diverts them from the very
sense of the work as a verbal embodiment of an experience.
The way a poem reaches beyond conceptual language and meaning can be illustrated by
Miguel de Unamuno’s “La oración del ateo.” If the poem is read after some of Unamuno’s
prose, students already will be aware of the author’s struggle to find faith and his constant
playing off of this search against his fear and skepticism. The poem turns this struggle
into a dramatic experience.
The experience begins with the title, which invites readers to ask, “Why would an atheist,
who does not believe in God, pray?” We enter the poem intending to discover just what
this person’s beliefs might be and whether he really is an atheist. The first half-line
implies an affirmative answer: By talking to God, the speaker would seem to accept God’s
existence. But this half-line is immediately undercut by the next, with its assertion of
God’s nonexistence. Line 2 puts together belief and disbelief within one image, puzzling
us even more: How can one collect complaints in one’s “nothingness”? Lines 3 and 4
continue the pattern of successive assertion and denial: Reading line 3 alone, we see it as a
positive declaration of God’s value; running into line 4, however, the poem’s statement
turns into a denial, since God’s consolation is only a trick. By leading the reader back and
forth in this fashion, the text not only confuses and twists the reader’s desire to get a clear
picture of the speaker’s beliefs, but also involves the readers in the speaker’s anguished
ambivalence.
In lines 9–14 the poem moves to a paradoxical resolution of sorts. On the one hand, the
speaker asserts that God is great and that reality is too narrow to encompass God; on the
other, he states that God is only “Idea” and lies outside reality. Readers can tilt the
paradox either way: They can assert that “Idea,” which might echo Plato, is very
affirmative, or, instead, stress the way in which God cannot be seized. In the last line, the
paradox continues as the speaker continues addressing a being he sees as inexistente.
This poem is a traditional sonnet. Its fourteen hendecasyllabic lines follow an exact rhyme
scheme (ABBA, ABBA, CDC, DEE); its statement of the paradox is developed in the
quartets and resolved in the tercets. This rigid form both controls and contrasts with the
speaker’s confusion and anxiety, and echoes his desperate effort to give form to his vision.
(In teaching poetry, I emphasize that formal devices can intensify the reader’s experience,
but I do not stress formal devices for their own sake.)
What has this text communicated to us? Certainly not an affirmation of God’s existence
or nonexistence, nor a resolution of the speaker’s doubts. Instead, it has dramatized those
doubts for us and involved us in all of the paradoxes and anxieties that this speaker feels. I
often suggest to my students that the poem is more valuable for a reader who has not
gone through religious doubt and anguish, because it makes such a reader understand
much better the experience of someone who has.
Notes
1. Carlos Bousoño, Teoría de la expresión poética, 4th ed. (Madrid: Gredos, 1966), 18–
29.
4. Pedro Salinas, Poesías completas, 2nd ed. (Barcelona: Barral Editores, 1975), 136. The
poem comes from the volume Seguro azar, which contains works written between
1924 and 1928.
5. Federico García Lorca, Obras completas (Madrid: Aguilar, 1957), 241–42. The poem
comes from the book Poema del cante jondo.
Los estereotipos
Duración de la actividad: de 1 a 5 sesiones, de acuerdo al número de ejercicios que se
quieran utilizar. Puede ser dividida en segmentos pequeños.
Objetivos
• El objetivo cultural de esta actividad es descubrir cómo un poema comunica los
estereotipos de una sociedad sobre hombres y mujeres, y examinar si esos
estereotipos son los mismos que aún tenemos nosotros.
• El objetivo de lengua es escribir una composición corta en equipos sobre el tema
del poema.
• El objetivo gramatical es acrecentar el vocabulario del estudiante, aprender sobre
recursos poéticos, y practicar estructuras gramaticales.
Vocabulario y gramática:
Extensión:
Depende del nivel: Extensión sugerida (en número de palabras): Principiantes: 75,
Intermedios: 125, Avanzados: 200.
Organización:
- Introducción
- 4 sub-tópicos
- Conclusión
Materiales:
Actividades
Pasos
A. Antes de leer
B. A leer!
C. A escribir!
D. Después de leer y de escribir
A. Antes de leer
1. Lluvia de ideas Invite a los estudiantes a hablar entre ellos sobre estereotipos
basados en su género. Pueden usar el siguiente cuadro.
2. Listas de Palabras
Pida a los estudiantes que ordenen las palabras de acuerdo al tiempo en que se
usan.
Pídales que hablen de situaciones en que han sentido que se trataron por los
estereotipos y no por su valor como persona. ¿Qué hicieron cuando sucedió, o qué
harían si les sucediera?
3. Antes de leer el poema, los estudiantes deben contestar las siguientes preguntas en
equipos.
a) ¿De qué se trata este poema, de acuerdo con el encabezamiento?
b) ¿Qué sabes de Sor Juana?
c) ¿Qué sabes de la sociedad de su época?
d) ¿Cómo se trataba a las mujeres en esa sociedad? ¿Y ahora?
e) ¿Qué es una comparación?
f) ¿Qué es una sátira?
g) ¿Qué es una metáfora? ¿Un símil? ¿Una figura retórica?
h) ¿Qué es la rima? ¿Cuántos tipos conoces?
Invite a los estudiantes a leer el título del poema y pregunte acerca de qué les parece que
se trata el poema. ¿A qué se refiere la poeta?
B. A leer!
Texto
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 1
(Juana de Asbaje y Ramírez; ¿1651?-1695)
Arguye de inconsecuentes el gusto y la censura de los hombres que en las mujeres acusan lo
que causan.
1. Los estudiantes lo leen y, en grupos pequeños, deciden qué tipo de poesía es,
justificando su decisión. Hablan también de los recursos poéticos y del lenguaje
que encuentran en sus análisis.
2. Divida la clase en grupos de tres o cuatro estudiantes. Cada grupo tiene que leer
una o dos estrofas y hacer lo siguiente:
• Subrayar las palabras que desconozcan y resolver sus problemas de
vocabulario con los compañeros de su grupo.
• Identificar los recursos poéticos y el lenguaje de la poeta para transmitir los
estereotipos del hombre y de la mujer de su época.
• Señalar las estructuras gramaticales que se repiten en el texto que leyeron.
3. Cada grupo comparte con la clase sus hallazgos. Ahora la clase está lista para
analizar el poema, juntos.
Pregunte a los estudiantes cuál creen que es el mensaje que la poeta quiere
compartir con el lector y cuál es su interpretación personal del poema.
C. A escribir!
1. En equipos: Ahora los estudiantes ya están listos para comenzar el proceso de
escribir una composición en grupos. Las siguientes preguntas pueden ayudarles a
escribirla.
• ¿De qué acusa la poeta a los hombres en general? ¿Y específicamente?
• ¿Qué hacen ellos?
• ¿Cuáles son algunos de los estereotipos que los hombres tienen de las mujeres
en la época de Sor Juana? ¿Y las mujeres de los hombres? ¿Son todos iguales?
Se organiza una puesta en común en grupos pequeños para revisar los poemas así
como las cuestiones léxicas que hayan surgido y las estructuras que los alumnos
hayan localizado en el poema.
Con la autorización del estudiante, haga que algunos estudiantes lean sus poemas.
La clase escucha, toma notas y da impresiones oralmente acerca de los ejercicios
personales.
3. Reflexión
4. Evaluación
Una actividad sugerida puede ser que, con permiso del estudiante, el instructor
selecciona unas muestras para mostrarlas a la clase mediante un proyector. Se
pueden subrayar áreas con problemas y todos los estudiantes pueden ofrecer
sugerencias para superarlos.Esto ayudará en futuras tareas.
Ahora vamos a utilizar las Rúbricas que te ha dado el/la profesor(a) para evaluar
estas composiciones; a trabajar!
6. Repaso gramatical
Introducing a CONTRAST
a diferencia de in contrast to
a pesar de (que) in spite of
al contrario on the contrary
aunque even though, although
en cambio however
sin embargo nevertheless, however
por otro lado on the other hand
Introducing a SIMILARITY
del mismo modo similarly, in the same way
de la misma forma / manera
asimismo likewise
tal como just like, just as
RESTATEMENT
es decir, o sea that is to say, in other words
GENERAL STATEMENT
en general in general
generalmente generally, usually
SPECIFIC STATEMENT
por ejemplo for example, for instance
ASSIGNING ORDER
primeramente, en primer lugar in the first place
al principio in the beginning
después, luego later, then
al final, finalmente in the end, finally
en conclusión, para concluir in conclusion
Rubrics
AP® Spanish Language 2004 Scoring Guidelines2
Composition
9 Demonstrates Excellence in Written Expression
• Relevant, thorough, and very well-developed treatment of the topic
• Very well organized
• Control of a variety of structures and idioms. Occasional errors may occur, but there is no pattern
• Rich, precise, idiomatic vocabulary; ease of expression
• Excellent command of conventions of the written language (orthography, sentence structure,
paragraphing and punctuation)
Notes
1. Available at users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/hombresn.htm.
2. 2004 AP Spanish Literature Scoring Guidelines, as well as more current Scoring
Guidelines, are available online at AP Central at apcentral.collegeboard.com/spanlit.
Available at apcentral.collegeboard.com/spanlit
Introducción
Los temas gemelos del “Carpe diem” y del “Collige virgo rosas” tienen sus raíces en los
cultos míticos de Adonis y Venus y en la celebración de la fecundidad de la primavera, de
la juventud y de la vida.1 La belleza física femenina, como la de la rosa, es decir, de la
Naturaleza, es de breve duración que no resiste la llegada de la noche y del frío; más allá
está la vejez, el invierno, en el que cesa la alegría fecunda de la Naturaleza y donde nos
aguarda la muerte, la tiniebla; gocemos, pues, de este mayo de rosas, ya que no podemos
evitar las nieves de diciembre ni la nada de sombras. Ausonio, en su “De rosas
nascentibus,” parece ser el primer poeta clásico a recoger estos motivos en su lírica al
afirmar: “Coged las rosas vos, que vais perdiendo/mientras la flor y edad, señora, es
nueva/y acordaos que va desfalleciendo/vuestro tiempo y que nunca se renueva”
(Escandón 38).
No obstante los versos de Ausonio, la mayoría de las veces que se presenta en la literatura
castellana el tema de la brevedad de la vida y de la necesidad de aprovecharla para el
placer es por influencia de Horacio, en cuyas odas morales el tema del “Carpe diem”sirve
de piedra de toque. En su “Oda a Leuconoe” se lee: “El tiempo huye; lo que más te
importa/ Es no poner en duda tu provecho;/Coge la flor que hoy nace alegre, ufana,/
¿Quién sabe si otra nacerá mañana?” (Escandón 42-43).
Más allá de las directas traducciones de los clásicos por parte de poetas castellanos
medievales, el poeta que recoge e introduce el motivo del “Carpe diem”a España en la
manera mas íntegra y artísticamente lograda es, sin lugar a dudas, Garcilaso de la Vega; el
cual acude, a su turno, como fuente inmediata, al conocido soneto de Bernardo Tasso,
cuyo primer verso es “Mentre che l’auro crin v’ondeggia intorno”. 2
Ahora bien, no obstante la persistencia del “Carpe diem” y del “Collige virgo rosas” en la
lírica de todos los países desde sus primeras manifestaciones clásicas, reducir estos
motivos a orígenes y connotaciones exclusivamente literarios privaría al lector de sus
decisivas directrices evolutivas en términos filosófico-morales, ético-religiosas e histórico-
ide-ológicas. Esto sería precisamente el caso de España cuyo Renacimiento, como es bien
reconocido, se funda en una ideología más bien teocéntrica que propiamente arreligiosa o
Como contraste, pues, al paganismo garcilasiano con respecto al tratamiento del “Carpe
diem” en la lírica española4, habría que acudir a Fray Luis de León, cuya lírica abraza una
ideología propiamente ascética en cuanto al tema de la brevedad de la vida:
Fernando de Herrera parece combinar las dos tendencias epicúrea y ascética del “Carpe
diem” al introducir el motivo de la capacidad trascendental del amor; motivo lírico que
llega a España por medio del grupo de poetas italianos denominado “stilnovisti”, pasando
por Petrarca, hasta ser recogido, quizás más implícita que explícítamente, por Garcilaso
de la Vega. Se trata, en fin, de un interesante cruce entre el tema de la brevedad de la
belleza de la dama y de la perpetuidad del amor más allá de la muerte física de los
amantes: “Y no por eso amor mudará el puesto;/Que el valor lo asegura y cortesía/Del
ingenio y del alma la nobleza” (Escandón 98). 5
Cristóbal de Mesa añade otro elemento original al cruce entre el aspecto físico o pagano y
el espiritual o ascético del amor al destacar la permanencia que aporta el arte al
sentimiento amoroso y a la belleza física de la dama en sus versos: “Siendo mi fe escudo
en tantos daños,/Tu hoguera mi pecho y mi amor fuego,/Renacerás cual Fénix en mis
versos.” (Escandón 105).
En seguida nos ocuparemos más directamente del tratamiento gongorino del “Carpe
diem”, como máximo representante, el poeta cordobés, de la lírica española del barroco;
baste por el momento con citar, junto con “Mientras por competir con tu cabello,” otros
dos sonetos de Góngora que se ocupan explícitamente del motivo del “Carpe diem”. Estos
son: “Ilustre y hermosísma María” y “Ayer naciste y morirás mañana...” 6
Francisco de Rioja, en su “Silva a la Rosa,” introduce al tema del “Carpe diem” cierta
melancolía o lamentación resignada por la pérdida de la belleza futura, con claro intento
por parte del poeta lírico de desahogarse y, así, provocando una reacción sentimental en
el lector. Esta tendencia lacrimosa por parte del poeta lírico anticipa ya la desesperación
amorosa del poeta romántico: “Tan cerca, tan unida/Está al morir tu vida,/Que dudo si en
sus lágrimas la aurora/Mustia tu nacimiento o muerte llora” (Escandón 152).
La tendencia paródica de Quevedo se tiñe más firmemente de cierto tono burlesco pero
con fines explícitamente ético-morales:
Con Antonio de Solís la ironía del Fénix y de Quevedo pasa a franco chiste, cuya
improvisada espontaneidad no logra evitar cierto descenso ético-estético hacia lo vulgar:
obertura musical, introduce los tres motivos principales que enlazan y estructuran el
soneto (Stanton). Se trata del perfecto equilibrio entre la pasión y la juventud de la dama,
connotadas en la combinación sustantivo-adjetivo “rosa-ardiente,” frente a la refrenante
castidad de la misma implícita en los vocablos “azucena-honesto”. Ambos valores
cromáticos quedan implícitamente reflejados por extensión en el “gesto” y en el “mirar”
de la mujer. Sin destruir la delicada correspondencia paralelística y el contrabalance
semántico de dichos términos, el poeta toledano introduce sutilmente en el cuarto verso
del primer cuarteto el tercer motivo del tiempo en términos del sustantivo “tempestad”
yuxtapuesto ahora al verbo refrenante “serena”. Esta progresión en perfecta dinámica
opositiva desde los sus-tantivos—“rosa” y “azucena”— a los adjetivos—“ardiente” y
“honesto”—y terminando el cuarteto con otro equilibrio más entre el sustantivo
“tempestad” frente al verbo “serena” ilustra la maestría con que Garcilaso elaboró no sólo
la estructura del soneto sino también la sutileza con que introduce la tensión entre el
mundo material y el temporal. Es precisamente esta tensión que servirá de fundamento al
mensaje ideológico del “Carpe diem”; es decir, la belleza física femenina y de la
Naturaleza sometidas a la implacable marcha del tiempo.
Las palabras iniciales del primer verso del segundo cuarteto “y en tanto,” al recoger las
mismas del primer verso del soneto, sirven como primera indicación de otra
estructuración paralelística mayor entre los dos cuartetos. Desde el punto de vista
temático Garcilaso sigue plasmando, en este segundo cuarteto, la fisonomía de la dama,
cuya concreción presencial va cuajando progresivamente como especie de pintura en
proceso. No obstante, como queda dicho y a diferencia del barroco, hecho que se
confirmará en seguida con Góngora, Garcilaso, como poeta/pintor propiamente
clasicista, acude directamente a la naturaleza para su captación de las características
fisionímicas de la dama, ya que su cabello y “hermoso cuello blanco” recogen
respectivamente la luz dorada del oro (sol) y la blancura de la azucena (nieve). Junto a la
reanudación semántica por parte de Garcilaso entre la palidez del cuello y la blancura de
la azucena inicial, el poeta toledano enlaza los cuartetos estructuralmente con el “tiempo
airado” de los tercetos al introducir ya en el último verso del segundo cuarteto la frialdad
del viento. No obstante, quizás el efecto más magistral del último verso del segundo
cuarteto queda en la progresión semántico-rítmica de los verbos, cuyo explícito efecto es
animar dicho cuadro de cierto estatismo pictórico. Nos referimos al desenfrenado
movimiento del viento, con su bisémico simbolismo físico-temporal, y cuya amenazante
progresión “mueve, esparce y desordena” el mundo material. Una última función de
alcance, ahora, más bien ideológico de este último verso del segundo cuarteto, como
especie de piedra angular del soneto entero, se confirma en la tensión en que insiste
Garcilaso entre la belleza física de la dama y del mundo natural y la consabida fuerza
destructiva del tiempo a base de la contraposición “viento/desordena” y
“tempestad/serena”.
El imperativo del primer verso del terceto inicial no sólo cierra la frase iniciada con “en
tanto” desde el punto de vista sintáctico, sino que también explicita ya dicho mensaje
ideológico del “Carpe diem” . Garcilaso consolida magistralmente el mensaje mediante
un continuo juego de paralelismos y contrastes tanto semánticos como fónicos: “azucena-
serena-desordena-primavera”,“tempestad serena-alegre primavera-tiempo airado”. El
valor bisémico de “dulce fruto”, desde luego, tiene la doble connotación de la belleza física
de la dama, la cual será destruida por el invierno, frente a la renovación cíclica de la
“alegre primavera”: “coged de vuestra alegre primavera/el dulce fruto antes que’l tiempo
airado/ cubra de nieve la hermosa cumbre”.
El segundo terceto sirve como especie de coda ya que esencialmente reitera el mensaje del
terceto anterior pero con óptica universal. Esto se confirma mediante la introducción del
tiempo futuro y el ahora aún más explícito mensaje moral del “Carpe diem”. Es más.
Garcilaso redondea o cierra la estructura del soneto al elaborar aún más dicho juego
semántico-fónico. “Edad ligera”evoca la blancura de la “azucena” inicial no sólo mediante
el valor semántico sino también a través de la rima. Habría que destacar, como última
muestra de la maestría estética de Garcilaso y otra evidencia más de la municiosa
elaboración a que sometió este soneto, el efecto fónico a base de la aliteración en la “r”
junto con la rapidez rítmica y múltiple acentuación métrica en el verso doce; el resultado
siendo una especie de efecto acribillante del paso del tiempo: “Marchitará la rosa el viento
helado”.
Pasando ahora al soneto de Góngora “Mientras que competir con tu cabello” se ve, desde
el primer momento, que se trata, más que de divergencia temática con respecto al
tratamiento clasicista del “Carpe diem” , de una pronunciada tensión semántico-
estructural entre los motivos poéticos junto con una tendencia a lo hiperbólico más
propios de la estética barroca. Ambos sonetos, en efecto, exponen los motivos del “Carpe
diem” y del “Collige virgo rosas” en términos de una idéntica exhortación a gozar el
presente efímero del esplendor juvenil. Incluso se destaca una perfecta coincidencia en los
motivos de la belleza femenina principalmente en términos florales: “lilio bello-blanca
frente”, “oro bruñido-cabello”, “clavel temprano-cada labio”, “luciente cristal-gentil
cuello”. Desde el punto de vista estructural el “Mientras” de este soneto tiene perfecta
correspondencia con el “mentre” del citado soneto de Bernardo Tasso (véase nuestra nota
número 2), cuya repetición anafórica evoca, a su turno, el consabido “en tanto” de los
cuartetos garcilasianos.
perfecta simetría de los cuartetos, los tercetos sirven para crear una tensión semán-tico-
estructural. El recolectio en los versos nueve y once sigue, ahora, una enumeración
desordenada o discrepante a la anterior, como modo de prefigurar ya la implacable fuerza
destructiva del tiempo; a la distribución, pues, de “cabello-frente-cada labio-cuello” en los
cuartetos, Góngora yuxtapone en los versos nueve y once, en perfecta relación
paralelística, cuello/oro—cabello/lilio—labio/clavel—frente/cristal luciente”.
Junto a la tensión semántico-estructural cabe añadir otra más bien ideológica entre el arte
y la naturaleza que introduce Gongora como figura prototípica de la estética e ideología
barrocas de la España del siglo XVII. A diferencia del citado procedimiento más bien
mimético de Garcialso ante la relación arte/naturaleza, en el soneto de Góngora el arte
supera, hasta desprecia la naturaleza. De aquí la arrogancia narcisista de la figura
femenina frente a la belleza del mundo natural; es decir, “el sol compite en vano con el
oro del cabello de la dama, y el cuello femenino triunfa con desdén lozano sobre el
luciente cristal”.
Entre las otras divergencias entre los dos sonetos habría que comparar, desde luego, su
ritmo interno. Si en Garcilaso se percibe un equilibrio propiamente clasicista a base de la
perfecta bimembración entre la función expositiva de los cuartetos y la reiterativa de los
tercetos, prestando al soneto su consabida estructuración circular, en Góngora el ritmo
interno sigue un crescendo que, al traspasar los cuartetos, desemboca en el último verso
de choque auténticamente cósmico: “en tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en nada”.
Paradójicamente, frente al “tiempo airado” en Garcilaso, el motivo del tiempo en
Góngora es apenas insinuado, con la posible excepción de “edad dorada”; su fuerza
destructiva, no obstante, resulta mucho más universal, hasta metafísica, al trascender la
belleza inmediata de la dama y de la naturaleza garcilasianas. Dicha actitud de desengaño
metafísico concuerda perfectamente con el pesimismo ético-moral y perspectiva elegíaca
del barroco. Así la rosa meramente marchita de Garcilaso se viste de luto en Góngora al
transformarla, el poeta cordobés, a la negra “viola troncada”.
Conclusión
Reiteremos, a modo de conclusión, la esencial divergencia ideológica entre los dos
sonetos comentados y, consecuentemente, entre la filosofía poética de Garcilaso y
Góngora como encarnaciones prototípicas de la estética del Renacimiento y del Barroco
respectivamente. Si el soneto de Góngora toma como punto de partida los modelos
estructurales y temáticos propiamente clasicistas o paganos de Tasso y de Garcilaso con
respecto al motivo del “Carpe diem” y del “Collige virgo rosas”, el mismo soneto acaba,
aún más allá de la consabida vena ascética del “Carpe diem” en la lírica española, en la
nota patética, no ya a causa de la fugacidad del mundo material, sino que el poeta
cordobés ahora ahoga al lector en la propia transitoriedad del tiempo. Es decir, el soneto
nos sitúa ante la imagen misma del infinito. Frente a la cerrada redondez temático-
estructural garcilasiana el final del soneto de Góngora queda abierto; y no sin cierta ironía
-Bernardo Tasso
Soneto XXIII
En tanto que de rosa y d’azucena
se muestra la color en vuestro gesto,
y que vuestro mirar ardiente, honesto,
con clara luz la tempestad serena;
-Garcilaso de la Vega
Soneto 228
Mientras por competir con tu cabello,
oro bruñido al Sol relumbra en vano,
mientras con menosprecio en medio el llano
mira tu blanca frente el lilio bello;
3. Junto con Isaías XI otras referencias bíblicas reminiscentes del motivo del “Carpe
diem” se encuentran en Job, XIV, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10; Salmo CII, 11; Salmo CIII, 15, 16
(Escandón 49-51). Como muestra de que la representación de la vida humana en
térrminos florales no es un motivo literario que se limita a nuestras oscuras raíces
prerracionales sino que sigue hasta los momentos actuales de las tradiciones
estéticas y culturales de la humanidad, sólo haría falta acudir a Bodas de sangre de
Federico García Lorca como muestra representativa del motivo en la literatura
española del siglo XX.
7. Consúltese el estudio de Escandón para una continuación del motivo del “Carpe
diem” y del “Collige virgo rosas” a lo largo de la tradición literaria del
Neoclasicismo y Romanticismo españoles, hasta concluir, su trayectoria, con el
Modernismo de Rubén Darío.
Bibliografía
Aznar Anglés, Eduardo. “Clásico y barroco (dos sonetos del clasicismo espanol)”.
Homenaje al profesor Antonio Vilanova. Universidad de Barcelona, 1989: 57-74.
Cabañas, Pablo. “Garcilaso, Góngora y Arguijo (tres sonetos sobe el mismo tema)”.
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Vol. 47 (1970): 210-222.
Calcraft, R. P. “The ‘Carpe Diem’ Sonnets of Garcilaso de la Vega and Góngora”. The
Modern Language Review. Vol. 76, No. 2 (April, 1981): 332-337.
Carballo-Picazo, Alfredo. “El soneto ‘Mientras por competir con tu cabello’, de Góngora”.
Revista de Filología Española. Vol. 47 (1964): 379-398.
Chinchilla, Rosa Helena. The Evolution of Classical Myth in Spain’s Golden Age (1500-
1680). Doctoral Dissertation. State University of New York at Stony Brook, August,
1989.
De la Vega, Garcilaso. Poesías castellanas completas. Sexta edición. Elias Rivers (Ed.).
Madrid: Clásicos Castalia, 1969.
García Berrio, Antonio. “Tipología textual de los sonetos clásicos españoles sobre el
‘Carpe Diem’”. Dispositio. Vol. 3, No. 9 (1978): 243-293.
Gerli, Michael E. “Más allá del carpe diem: El soneto ‘Mientras por competir con tu
cabello’ de Luis de Góngora”. Estudios en Homenaje a Enrique Ruiz Fornells. Juan
Fernández J., José Labrador, Teresa Valdivieso (Eds.). ALDEEU (1990): 255-258.
Góngora y Argote, Luis de. Obras completas. Juan Millé y Giménez, Isabel Millé y
Giménez (Eds.). Sexta edición. Madrid: Aguilar, 1967.
Iventosch, Herman. “The Classic and the Baroque: Sonnets of Garcilaso and Góngora”.
Estudios de hispanistas norteamericanos dedicados a Helmut Hatzfeld con motivo de su
80 aniversario. Josep M. Solá-Solé, Alessandro Crisafulli, Bruno Damiani (Eds.)
Barcelona: Ediciones Hispam, 1974: 35-40.
Lapesa, Rafael. “Sobre algunos sonetos de Garcilaso”. La poesía de Garcilaso. Elias Rivers
(Ed.). Barcelona: Ariel, 1981: 93-102.
Smith, Julian Paul. “The Rhetoric of Presence in Poets and Critics of Golden Age Lyric:
Garcilaso, Herrera, Góngora”. Modern Language Notes. Vol. 100, No. 2 (March,
1985): 223-246.
Literary critics generally describe Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer as Spain’s most beloved post-
Romantic poet. His work appears at the end of the Romantic period and represents a very
gentle, personal take on the poet’s experience, in contrast to the confident exuberance of
José de Espronceda or the forceful passion of José María de Heredia. Diego Marín states
that “A diferencia de los románticos anteriores, su aspiración no es presentar fuertes
emociones con elocuente retórica ni pintar cuadros de belleza decorativa, sino dar forma
artística y concreta a los vagos estados de su alma.”1 What we find in Bécquer’s poetry is a
carefully crafted expression of his feelings, using natural images and a lyrical style. For a
good introduction to Bécquer, I suggest the following sources: the excellent section on
Romantic Poetry in the Teacher’s Guide to the AP Spanish Literature course produced by
the College Board; the introductory notes on Bécquer in Azulejo: Study Guide for the New
AP Spanish Literature Course; the very helpful answers to questions on Bécquer’s poems
in the Teachers Resource Manual for Abriendo puertas, as well as the introductory notes
on Bécquer in Volume I of that two-part series; and Diego Marín’s Literatura Española,
Tomo 2.
Students in the AP Spanish Literature course need to be familiar with the three Bécquer
poems included on the reading list, all taken from his posthumously published Rimas.
However, most teachers will be familiar with many more of the Rimas and will want to
include more examples of his work for students to consider. I included “Rima V,” the
well-known “Rima VII,” “Rima X,” and Rima LXVI,” but each teacher will undoubtedly
have his or her own favorites. In addition, it is helpful to give students at least one of the
Leyendas for which Bécquer was also known. I selected “Los ojos verdes” because it lends
itself to comparison with Rima XI and the theme of yearning for an unrealizable love.
The Rimas poems are great tools to help students learn about poetry analysis, because
they are very traditional in form and hence easy for the student to penetrate. “Rima IV:
No digáis que agotado su tesoro” is the poet’s celebration of his art. We know by the end
of the first stanza that the poet views his art as immortal, in spite of his own very certain
mortality. How can we help students fully savor the message of this poem? I always start
by making sure that everyone knows what the poem literally says. The problem for
students is that, even when they know what all the words mean, the poet’s message is not
always clear, because of the inversion of the normal word order (el hipérbaton), the
omission of words, or an unfamiliar use of a particular word. Sometimes I ask students to
work in small groups to focus on a single stanza and then produce a one-sentence
summary in Spanish of what they think the poet is saying. They will read it literally at
first: “Don’t tell me that you are lacking themes, (that) your treasure (is) exhausted, (that)
your lyre (is) muted; there may not be any more poets, but there will always be poetry.”
They will then need to put this into their own words, and for the first stanza they might
write “Es posible que el poeta no tenga más que decir, pero eso no quiere decir que la
poesía no existe.” If each group presents one stanza, very shortly they will all have a good
idea of what the poet is saying. They will see that each stanza presents a different idea
about what inspires poetry (love, natural beauty, the limits of reason, the mysteries of life,
etc.) and of what poetry transcends, and all these ideas are unified by the repeated
estribillo, which simply and powerfully emphasizes the lasting power of poetry.
Once the students understand what the poem says, it is useful to read this poem aloud,
several times, to let them hear the rhythm of its stanzas, which is very evident as they
listen. Then you can have them count the syllables, and they will discover that after the
first stanza, which consists of three eleven-syllable lines (endecasílabos) and the brief
estribillo “habrá poesía,” each four-line stanza alternates between endecasílabos and
heptasílabos (seven-syllable lines). (In Azulejo all but the first stanza are grouped into 8
lines, but this is not the accepted grouping for this poem.) Thanks to the excellent notes
in Nextext’s Teacher’s Resource Manual for Abriendo puertas, I learned that this poem is a
silva, a form which allows the poet to group seven-and eleven-syllable lines however he
chooses and which does not require a set rhyme scheme. The students will soon discover
that there is a recognizable pattern of rhyme, assonance in the even-numbered lines.
When these patterns are made clear, then you will want to ask the students what effect
this structure has on the reader: What is the effect of the alternation between the long and
short lines, followed by the estribillo? What is the possible connection between the
carefully structured verse form and the message? How does the poem’s rhyme serve to
unify, but not limit, the poem? Some critics have noted that Bécquer’s syntax and metrical
patterns tend to be simple, and that he prefers assonance in even-numbered lines as is
common in romances2, a verse form with which students will already be familiar and
which is known for its musicality. Let them look for this in the other poems on the list
and see if they agree.
“Rima XI: Yo soy ardiente, yo soy morena” is much shorter than the first poem on the list
and quite easy to understand. Students will quickly see that there are several voices, all
female, addressing the poet, to whom he responds. Although the metrical pattern is not
regular, students will easily recognize the use of consonant rhyme in odd-numbered lines
and assonance in most even-numbered lines, and the parallel structure of each stanza will
be clear, as well. They will see that the third stanza is where the poet’s message is
delivered. He rejects dark, burning passion and pale, golden tenderness, reaching out for
an impossibly intangible dream. When we read this poem in class, I also have students
read “Los ojos verdes,” a very accessible story in three parts from Bécquer’s Leyendas
which makes a great companion piece for this poem. In this story, a young man becomes
obsessed with a fantastic green-eyed woman who has apparently claimed other victims
and against whom he is warned by those older and wiser. Of course, he pays them no
heed and abandons everything of which he is sure to seek out the elusive, ephemeral
vision that has captured his imagination. In the end, he falls to his death, and students are
left to wonder whether the woman is a ghost or simply a figment of his own imagination.
Either way, the young man is doomed from the start, as is the male voice in Rima XI, who
chooses an impossible love, perhaps a cherished idea more than a reality. Does he really
want love, or does he prefer to be melancholy and unsatisfied? (When students learn
about Bécquer’s unhappy love life, they may have more sympathy with this yearning for
an impossible love.)
The final poem on our list, “Rima LIII: Volverán las golondrinas,” is beloved by many and
recited by more. Once again, this poem begs to be recited aloud, and your students should
do this, once they have made the poem their own. It is even worthwhile to consider
assigning this poem for memorization, if you believe, as I do, that learning a poem by
heart if a gift to the students which they will never lose. (I still remember poems I learned
in the eighth grade!) Once again we have a poem easily understood by our students with a
message that is quite clear. Our task here is not so much to interpret the poem’s message
as to get students to understand and appreciate the poem’s construction. Once they
observe the use of alternating stanzas in which the poet puts forth a series of incomplete
thoughts that are completed in the following stanzas, they should ask themselves why the
poem is set up in this way. What does this structure achieve? This poem offers a perfect
example of “anáfora,” the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line or
stanza in a poem. The parallel use of “Volverán . . .” and “pero . . .” in alternating stanzas
clearly unifies the poem, both structurally and thematically. Ask the students to count the
syllables and identify the rhythmical pattern of the stanzas, and ask them to look for the
use of rhyme. They should recognize that we have the same flexible verse form as in the
first poem (alternating use of lines of seven and eleven syllables), a silva. Ask them if the
poem has the same effect on them when read aloud. If not, how is it different?
These three poems will give students a good introduction to Bécquer’s style and themes.
Teachers can use them to compare with other Romantic poetry or with other poems
about love or about women—Azulejo does a good job in suggesting these comparisons,
such as comparing the relationship between men and women in “Rima IV” and in Sor
Juana’s famous redondillas, “Hombres necios que acusáis.” Helping students make these
comparisons provides a very useful practice for the AP Exam.
Notes
1. Diego Marín, Literatura española, Tomo II (Holt, Rinehart, Winston: Toronto, 1968),
p.3.
2. Ana Colbert, Coordinator, Azulejo: Study Guide for the New AP Spanish Literature
Course (Wayside Publishing: Sandwich, MA, 2002), p. 176.
For the first two decades of the twentieth century, Spanish-American poetry remained
under the sway of modernismo, many of whose adepts lived well into the 1930s.
Accordingly, the early poems of César Vallejo and Pablo Neruda bear traces of the
diction, imagery, and even subject matter (pale moons, gallant feasts) of that continental
movement.1 Soon thereafter, these same younger poets and other contemporaries would
set out consciously to put behind them the exquisite legacy of Rubén Darío and his
acolytes.
Hence, where the modernistas had cultivated an elaborate lexicon that was sometimes
characterized by unusual words (“auscultasteis”) and euphonious combinations (“libélula
vaga”), the newer lyrists strove for a style that included commonplace phrases (“¡Yo no
sé!”) and thereby resembled the ordinary vernacular. They worked toward a diction that
was more suggestive of the verbal textures of everyday speech. In the same vein, where
Darío and his “school” had enriched Hispanic lyric by inventing verse meters and stanza
forms (and also reviving older ones) and by experimenting with new rhyme schemes or
with monorhyme, poets after 1920, following the example of Walt Whitman, made the
crucial leap to free verse, often dispensing with regular rhyme and metrics altogether and,
again, bringing their art nearer to the sounds and rhythms of the oral idiom.
Where the modernistas had filled their art with references to things of elegance and
beauty (precious stones, water lilies, elegant rococo palaces, fountains with swans) the
next generation sought instead to include the humble objects of daily life (clotheslines,
common vegetables, the smell of burning bread) in their verbal scenes and figures. Where
the modernistas had reveled in the exotic and evoked fantastical “Orientalist” settings,
medieval Norse realms, or French gardens in Versailles, successor poets of every stripe
felt called upon to address and depict the more immediate, and even humble, quotidian
realities (whether physical or social) of human existence.
Finally, whereas (save for José Martí) the modernistas were almost religiously devoted to
the doctrine of Art for Art’s Sake and thus aimed at a “pure” beauty to the exclusion of
any moral or social concerns, their twentieth-century successors worked for an engagé
poetry that could connect them with real life and, later on, with politics and history. Not
accidentally, Neruda, Vallejo, and Guillén went on to become committed activists of the
socialist left. Even Octavio Paz in his lofty essays shows his original roots in 1930s
Marxism. And Jorge Luis Borges, who later in life would carve out a centrist,
cosmopolitan stance, actually began his writing career in the 1920s as a cultural
nationalist, with the explicit goal of being the local Walt Whitman, of capturing in his
verse the streets, patios, and neighborhoods of his native Buenos Aires.
These contrasts, let it be said, are working generalizations that are not necessarily true
across the board. Free verse did not become the sole way to write Spanish American lyric,
nor were traditional forms driven into obsolescence by newer ones. Neruda and his poetic
brethren were perfectly capable of crafting rhymes or writing sonnets; indeed, they often
did so and produced some memorable instances of the venerable fourteen-line genre.
(Neruda himself put out a volume in 1960 called Cien sonetos de amor.) The arch
modernista Darío, conversely, was not above expressing political sentiments (as witness
his own “A Roosevelt”) or addressing existential angst (“Lo fatal”) in his verses. The
foregoing is but a bird’ s eye view that holds many exceptions and special cases.
Pablo Neruda
One simply cannot discuss twentieth-century Spanish-American lyric verse without
spending some time with Pablo Neruda (1904—1973). To speak about this Chilean poet
is to approach not only a literary genius but a kind of creative miracle, a one-man cultural
phenomenon (“monstruo de la naturaleza,” as Cervantes once said of Lope de Vega), a
gifted bard for whom producing verse was as natural as breathing air. Neruda could write
poetry virtually anyplace—at a café, on a train, in a hospital. With an Obras completas
that eventually filled four thousand pages, his sheer fecundity has few rivals in lyric
history; and his range of poetic forms as well as subject matters is so broad and varied as
to be breathtaking. He wrote almost any kind of poetry one might imagine, and he
excelled at them all. His readers were legion. It is no exaggeration to say that his poems
were read and loved by millions, both in his native land and elsewhere.
Born Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in the town of Parral, he was raised in Temuco in the
far south. His father was a train engineer. Adopting the pseudonym “Neruda” (taken
from Jan Neruda, a Czech writer), he began writing and publishing poetry in his teens,
after he had moved to Santiago and involved himself in literary circles. Starting in 1927 he
served as Chilean consul for more than a decade, first in various European colonies in
Southeast Asia, then in Spain, where he witnessed the bloody overthrow of the Spanish
Republic by Franco’s fascists in 1939.
The Spanish events traumatized and changed Neruda. From then on he became an
unapologetic leftist and a member of the Chilean Communist Party. Voted into the
Senate in 1945, he was forced into exile by local repression in 1948. Allowed to return
home in 1952, he eventually stood for the presidency in 1970, though he soon withdrew
in order to make way for the candidacy of his socialist comrade Dr. Salvador Allende, the
first Marxist in history ever to be elected as head of state. Neruda was appointed
ambassador to France by President Allende in 1971, the year he also received the Nobel
Prize for Literature. Diagnosed with cancer in 1973, he went back to Chile, where the
right-wing coup by General Augusto Pinochet swept aside the socialist government,
executed thousands of its loyalists, and killed Allende. Neruda himself was harassed and
his house ransacked by military troops. (The latter incident is portrayed in Antonio
Skármeta’s novel.) He died of ill health a week later, reportedly writing an anti-Pinochet
poem on his deathbed.
Neruda went through many phases in his half-century as a writer. The three poems on the
AP reading list represent different moments in that career. Certain key traits, however,
persist in most of his work. First, Neruda is the poet of physical things, and his poetry
dazzlingly conveys their visual and tactile substance through verbal means. Among
English-language poets, only John Keats and William Carlos Williams show as powerful
and vivid a contact with the physical world as Neruda.
Second, in his later, more mature phases Neruda gives free rein to that physical virtuosity
via the device known as enumeración caótica, in which he unleashes long lists of objects
or people. With its precedent in Whitman’s catalogs (a hallmark technique), in Neruda
the enumeraciones are only apparently chaotic, for there is always an overarching logic
that binds them in common, and moreover they symbolize perfectly his uncanny grasp of
the world we inhabit. In a brief essay with the telling title “Sobre una poesía sin pureza,”
Neruda fittingly starts out, “Es muy conveniente, en ciertas horas del día o de la noche,
observer profundamente los objetos en descanso: las ruedas que han recorrido largas,
polvorientas distancias, soportando grandes cargas vegetales o minerales, los sacos de las
carbonerías, los barriles, las cestas, los mangos y asas del carpintero.” In such a vein, the
author makes the exhortation, “ Así sea la poesía que buscamos, gastado como por un
ácido por los deberes de la mano . . . Una poesía impura como un traje, como un cuerpo,
con manchas de nutrición.” The manifesto-like piece continues, as is appropriate, with
more enumerations.2
This particular poem exemplifies Neruda’s deft handling of lyric language within a mostly
established format. The piece adheres rigorously to fourteen-syllable alexandrine lines
and four-line stanzas, with rima consonante in each second and fourth line. Whole
sentences are repeated in unobtrusive ways, as are a number of words, notably “alma,”
“distante,” “palabra,” and “silencio” Such recurrences produce an evocative and
incantatory quality. As befits a poem that depicts a moment of quiet between two lovers,
its overall vocabulary is one of stillness and absence. Significantly, the only noun that
might suggest movement, “mariposa” is twice juxtaposed with words of stasis: “sueño”
and “en arrullo.” All of these carefully chosen, subtly placed resources in “Me gustas
cuando callas” make for a unified tone and feeling that is usually intuited by its loyal
Hispanic readers.
Neruda As Surrealist
Neruda’s six years as a diplomat in the Far East were for him a time of intense loneliness.
Not knowing the local languages and feeling equally out of place with the colonial
Europeans, he found himself caught up in a dejected life of isolation. In such
circumstances he wrote the poems that comprise Residencia en la tierra (1933), a book
that mostly depicts a world dominated by human sordidness, banality, and boredom, by
physical disintegration, decay, and death, all of which elicit in the poetic speaker a
combination of anguish and despair. This is a common enough subject matter in modern
times. What gave Residencia its special reputation was its new poetic language: long,
winding sentences that sometimes lack a verb; obscure, convoluted syntax that often
seems to defy the ordinary rules of acceptable writing; and, of course, chaotic lists of
disparate items that further intensify the prevailing sense of one’s being crushed by the
surrounding world’s daily horrors. Residencia is usually described as Surrealist, and
though Neruda never identified himself with any particular “school,” the poems in this
book do demonstrate the dream-like quality and the patently irrationalist approach
typically associated with the products of that French movement. Many a passage in
Residencia reads like the verbal equivalent of such paintings as The Persistence of Memory
by Salvador Dalí or Personal Values by René Magritte.3
“Walking around” is the best-known item from Residencia; its impassioned and accessible
language has helped make it a favorite anthology piece. From its famous opening line to
its disjointed lists in the final stanza, the speaker pours out his rage at the routines of
everyday existence and piles images upon images that bring out the nightmarish in
ordinary things —“hospitals donde los huesos salen por la ventana,” clothes that “lloran
lentas lágrimas suicas.” It is a mood in which even something as essential as to be
“comiendo cada día” is associated with death. (The opening simile, “un cisne de fieltro /
navegando en un agua de origin y ceniza,” may be a parody of the swans of modernismo.)
The only escape and consolation imaginable to the speaker are those provided by
random, poeticized acts of violence against minor authority figures or himself (stanza 4).
One can easily fancy such images on a Surrealist canvas or in early films by Buñuel.
Magritte actually did later paint a picture of a man with a “cara de cárcel,” and there is
even a painting by Max Ernst entitled Two Children Are Threated by a Nightingale, like
the “lirio” in this poem.
In the 1950s Neruda surprised everyone by moving on to yet another style and voice, as
best exemplified in the three published collections of a genre of his own making, the Odas
elementales. These poems are something new in literature. Their very appearance on the
page, with their predominantly short lines and completely free organization, take free-
verse form to hitherto unseen territory (literally). Their contents also constitute a major
shift. The classical ode, after all, is a European verse form dating back to the Greeks, with
events or persons of high significance—military victories, triumphant athletes, political
dignitaries— as appropriate subject matter. The traditional tone was typically dignified
and lofty, the style complex.
Neruda totally inverts the tradition by creating odes that are simple, direct, and often
funny (the latter a brand-new feature even for Neruda) and that generally address such
humble everyday objects as an onion, a tomato, or a pair of men’s socks. The adjective
elemental is quite significant; in Spanish it is suitably ambiguous, translated either as
“elementary” (i.e., basic, easy) or as “elemental” (i.e., primal, natural). Of no ode written
before Neruda could it be said that it was elemental. He does retain certain classical ode
conventions, such as when at a certain point he addresses his chosen subject with the
vocative “Oh, . . . ” The difference is that the addressee might be a common house cat.
The “Oda a la alcachofa” is a perfect example of this genre. It actually retains the military
matter and diction often found in classical odes, with “hileras marciales,” “voces de
commando,” “detonación” and the inevitable comparison to a grenade. Yet the soldier
going off to war is an artichoke, the vegetable’s key physical traits being noted here and
there. The narrative in the poem moves from farm fields to a militarized market, then
leads to a delightful ending in which the previous mock-warlike doings are quietly
abandoned for daily domesticity by María (a kind of Hispanic “Everywoman” figure)
doing her shopping. Most of us know the unique experience of peeling an artichoke
“escama por escama,” but Neruda’s memorable phrase “pacífica pasta” adds a new
dimension to this act, and the alliterative modifier furnishes a perfect ending to a lyric
that started out with warrior fantasies.
Nicolás Guillén
One fascinating strand to have emerged in the twentieth century is that of Afro-Antillean
poetry, of which the greatest practitioner is Nicolás Guillén (1902—1989). Himself
mulatto, Guillén was born in Camagüey, Cuba, of a progressivist father who edited a
newspaper. In his very first two volumes, Motivosde son (1930) and Sóngoro cosongo
(1931), Guillén set out to capture specifically African aspects of Cuban life, blending them
in a kind of literary mestizaje in his verse. The conspicuously placed word “son” in these
book titles, as a starting example, designates a centuries-old, Afro-Hispanic form of
dance-song that became quite fashionable in Havana in the 1920s.4 Over time, however,
Guillén sought a more wideranging outlook; accordingly, his next book, West Indies, Ltd.
(1934), takes on larger, pan-Caribbean sorts of subjects. He later visited Spain during the
Civil War, wrote about it in España (1937) and, like Neruda, became a Communist as a
result of the experience. In the 1960s Guillén saw his socialist ideas fulfilled in the Cuban
revolution, and from then on he lent his artistic and moral support to the regime, which
officially declared him the “poet of the nation.”
Although Guillén writes on African topics, he should not be “ghettoized” within the Afro-
Cuban category; in 1931 he even expressed a preference for the term afroespañol. His
approach to race questions, moreover, is not to be confused with the separatist sort of
“identity politics” now commonplace in United States life. Rather, Guillén’s vision reflects
a broader, world-historical perspective in which race differences are resolved through
political solidarity and social change. Like a good Marxist, he sees race through the lens of
class and economics, and not only as a matter of skin color.
The extremely moving “Balada de los dos abuelos” (fittingly, from West Indies, Ltd.)
exemplifies Guillén’s overall position. A “balada” of course, is a European, folk-verse
form in short lines, usually focused on actions of a legendary kind. Guillén retains these
features yet gives the poem, with its fast-moving account of colonialism and slavery, an
Afro-Caribbean component. The history of transatlantic pillage (“galeón ardiendo en
oro”) and the European takeover of indigenous lands by bribes of worthless beads
(“costas . . . / egañadas de abalorios”) are deftly summed up in a rush of succinct images.
Talk of afternoons at the “ingenio” carries great weight in Cuba, where the word signifies
“sugar mill.” The stanza beginning “¡Qué de negros!” catalogs and makes collective the
horrors we first see visited on the black grandfather. The repetitions in the last strophe, by
contrast, almost sing of the possibility of reconciling the speaker’s two pasts, with both his
ancestors now suffering, rejoicing, and even embracing as equals.5
“Sensemayá” (from the same volume) is one of Guillén’s best-known lyrics, a favorite for
performance with drum,6 yet also among his most enigmatic single pieces. On an obvious
and immediate level it portrays a folk rite about the killing of a snake, conceived in the
call-and-response pattern of African music, “an incantation or spell” that from the outset
plays with “rhythmic expression” via its thrice-repeated “apparently nonsense line.”7
Shifting line-lengths also mark changes in the snake’s progress.8 Some scholars have
placed the contents more precisely. “Mayombé” for instance, probably derives “from the
Cuban mayombero, which, according to Fernando Ortiz (founder of Afro-Cuban studies),
is the name for an Afro-Cuban conjurer (brujo) from the Congo region.” Moreover,
matar la culebra is “an Afro-Cuban dance performed on the ‘Día de Reyes,’ [when] the
blacks, in celebration of their temporary freedom, used to carry through the streets of
Havana an enormous artificial snake, several meters in length, stopping at the houses to
request their Christmas . . . aguinaldo.”9 The poem thus grows out of the world of
carnival-style celebrations, an origin further confirmed by the author himself via in a
personal anecdote.10
Still, there seems to be something more here than a feverish if impenetrable folk activity,
however central the vivid folklore may be to the experience. Indeed, the text has been
interpreted in political and ideological terms. For one critic, “the snake . . . is a symbol of
imperialism, and the poem an allegory of the need for, and means of, definitive liberation
”11 Along similar if more elaborate lines, Kutzinski sees the killing of the serpent as “the
triumph . . . not over death in general, but over slavery and cultural imperialism as
manifestations of death-in-life.”12 In view of Guillén’s own political horizons and evolving
worldview, such a reading is unavoidable, though should not be formulated too baldly or
simplistically.
Women Poets
Yet another significant current in the first part of the twentieth century has been that of
women poets, particularly in the Southern Cone countries. The first Nobel Prize awarded
to a Latin American author, in fact, went in 1945 to the Chilean “Gabriela Mistral” a
pseudonym for Lucía Godoy (1889 –1957). Ironically, Mistral’s art and subject matter
were in a more traditional vein. Other lyrists worthy of note are the Uruguayans Delmira
Agustini (1886–1914) and Juana de Ibarbourou (1895–1979).
A particularly fascinating figure in this regard is Alfonsina Storni (1892–1938), who was
born in Italian Switzerland but moved with her family to Argentina at the age of four. The
life, attitudes, and writings of Alfonsina (as she is generally referred to) are all of a piece.
In a courageous decision for its time, she dared to give birth to an illegitimate son and
then raised him with love and care. In her writings she consistently critiqued long-
standing gender inequalities and advocated independence for women through the dignity
of work, ideas that were unusual then in Argentina and that remain fresh today. She had
particularly harsh words for the age-old prejudice that expected women to function as
pretty playthings for men. Although she was chided as a bitter man-hater by (male)
friends and colleagues, the last fifty years have caught up with Storni’s thinking and she
now feels quite contemporary.
Alfonsina led a difficult existence, despite recognition in her lifetime. Her death also
became the stuff of legend. Suffering from an incurable cancer, during a stay in Mar del
Plata “she struggled to the end of a pier in a raging storm in the middle of the night and
threw herself into the smashing waves.”13 Years later, popular composer Ariel Ramírez
wrote a hauntingly beautiful song, “Alfonsina y el mar,” in which her tragic end is vividly
evoked, partly via direct snippets from “Voy a dormir,” one of Storni’s last poems.14 The
version sung by Mercedes Sosa is a must for anyone involved with Hispanic culture.
“Tú me quieres blanca,” an apt instance of Alfonsina at her best, confronts with relentless
irony a familiar topic: the double standard in sexual mores. Technically brilliant, the
entire poem is in hexameters, an unusual line form. Its changing rhyme scheme parallels
the changes in referent: a/a assonance in odd-numbered lines in stanzas 1 and 2, where
the subject is the woman; “masculine” a/o assonances when addressing the man in stanza
3; total absence of rhyme in stanza 4, in which chaos and disorder predominate; and the
return to a/a in the final stanza, though now in the even-numbered lines. The
grammatical structuring is also a tour de force, with present tenses (indicative and
subjunctive) in stanzas 1 and 2, predominance of preterite verbs in stanza 3, and
imperatives in stanza 4 that spill over into stanza 5, where the present and preterite briefly
return before our “buen hombre” receives his final, threefold command. (This is the only
moment in the poem, incidentally, where the word “hombre” appears.) The rough
deprivations in stanza 4 are the perfect contrast to the man’s easy life in the previous
strophe. “Peso ancestral” is darker, as it takes on an age-old machista conceit. The title
itself conveys the dead weight of this ideal of steely masculinity, though it may also refer
to the physical weight of the unidentified man who is in close proximity to the female
speaker.
The Mexican writer Rosario Castellanos (1925–1974) distinguished herself both in fiction
and verse before her life was absurdly cut off by an electrical accident in Tel Aviv where
she was serving as an ambassador. Her two densely-textured novels, Balún-Canán (1957)
and Oficio de tinieblas (1962), have as their unique subject the world of the Indians of
Chiapas. Feminism, meanwhile, runs throughout her work. Her senior thesis at the
University of Mexico was on feminine culture, and she even wrote a play entitled Eleterno
femenino (1975). The preoccupation can be seen in these two highly accessible yet ironic
dramatic monologues. “Kinsey Report” of course, takes its title from the famous 1951
survey of human sexual behavior by the American scientist Alfred Kinsey. Castellanos
uses that highly publicized book as a pretext to invent six different women of diverse ages
and conditions, who in poignant monologues describe their lives and longings, ranging
from grim marital respectability to sad hedonism to fantasies of “Príncipe Azul” The
poem is ideal for dramatizing in class.
Julia de Burgos (1914 –1953) is almost invariably classed as “Puerto Rico’s most famous
poet.” This label, while accurate enough, unfairly limits her artistry. Coming from an
island that is a special case in Spanish America, it is also true that much of Burgos’s public
existence was defined by her militancy within the nacionalista ranks during the leadership
of Albizu Campos. Such facts could scarcely boost her standing within respectable
academic and critical circles in the United States. Burgos’s very life, moreover, is
shrouded in myth and mystery, particularly her last few years, when she lived in dire
poverty in New York, succumbed to alcohol and disease, died unidentified on a street
corner in East Harlem, and was buried in a common grave in Potter’s Field. Her body was
eventually traced and transferred to Carolina in Puerto Rico later that year.15
Burgos’s two hundred poems cover a wide range of subject matter: politics, her
homeland, eroticism, romantic love. Indeed, her love lyrics include some outstanding
single instances of the genre; few poets have captured as skillfully as she did the sheer vital
force of erotic desire and fulfillment. Her most famous poem, “Río Grande de Loíza,” a
favorite at poetry readings, dazzlingly synthesizes each of her major preoccupations
within its intense forty-four lines. All of her poetry shows a true artist committed to her
craft, with its use of both traditional and free-verse forms and its conscious echoes of such
precursors as Neruda, Darío, and Verlaine.
“A Julia de Burgos” brings out a lesser-known side of its author: her feminism. From start
to finish, it dramatizes the “abismo” and conflicts between her public persona (the
“mentira social,” the “grave señora señorona”) and the more embattled and authentic
private self (“la esencia”). (The piece invites comparison with Borges’s well-known
parable, “Borges y yo;” the Argentine master’s text is more measured and conciliatory, the
combative Puerto Rican militant’s ends with revolution in the streets.) The literary
resources here are admirable and bold. Most of the assonant rhymes are agudas and end
in o—a difficult arrangement to bring off so consistently. In the next-to-last stanza, she
shifts to Dantean terza rima and then ends with a six-line strophe in consonant rhymed
couplets (rimas pareadas); paradoxically, she then turns to older forms when deploying
her more explosive final vision. There are telling allusions: to Jesus’s aphorism “I am the
way, and the truth, and the life” when she says of herself, “Yo soy la vida, la fuerza, la
mujer” and, of course, to Don Quixote when she draws a passionate comparison to the
knight’s steed, Rocinante.
Notes
1. For a summary of the modernista legacy, see Gene H. Bell Villada’s Art for Art’s Sake
and Literary Life, 104–20. For an examination of the politics in the poetry of Martí
and Darío (including a brief look at the latter’s poem “A Roosevelt”), see pages 244–
46 in Chapter 7, “The Changing Politics of Art for Art’s Sake” in Art for Art’s Sake
and Literary Life.
2. Pablo Neruda, “Sobre una poesía sin pureza,”in Obras completas, 1,822–23.
4. Ian Isidore Smart, Nicolás Guillén: Popular Poet of the Caribbean, 34–35, 39.
6. The Mexican classical composer Silvestre Reveultas, inspired by Guillén’s text, wrote a
symphonic tone poem entitled Sensemayá.
7. Smart, 37.
8. Lorna Williams, Self and Society in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén, 17.
13. Sonia Jones, Alfonsina Storni, 49. For an excellent biographical sketch, see pages 17–
50 in this book.
14. I am indebted to Professor Sylvia Coates of California State Polytechnic University for
information concerning this particular poem.
15. For a powerful biographical sketch, see Jack Agüeros’s introduction to Julia de
Burgos’s Song of the Simple Truth, ii–xxxix.
Sources
Alonso, Amado. Poesía y estilo de Pablo Neruda: Interpretación de una poesía hermética.
2nd ed. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1951.
Bell-Villada, Gene H. Art for Art’s Sake and Literary Life: How Politics and Markets
Helped Shape the Ideology and Culture of Aestheticism, 1790—1990. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. New York:
Harcourt Brace, 1994.
Burgos, Julia de. Song of the Simple Truth: Obra completa poética: The Complete Poems.
Compiled and translated with an introduction by Jack Agüeros. Bilingual ed.
Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1997.
Ellis, Keith. Cuba’s Nicolás Guillén: Poetry and Ideology. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1983.
Kutzinski, Vera M. Against the American Grain: Myth and History in Williams Carlos
Williams, Jay Wright, and Nicolás Guillén. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1987.
Neruda, Pablo. “Sobre una poesía sin pureza.” In Obras completas (section “Poesía y prosa
no incluidas en libro”), 1,822–23. Buenos Aires: Losada, 1967.
Seymour-Smith, Martin. Guide to Modern World Literature. New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1973.
Smart, Ian Isidore. Nicolás Guillén: Popular Poet of the Caribbean. Columbia: University
of Missouri Press, 1990.
Williams, Lorna V. Self and Society in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1982.
In order for students to be able to analyze poetry in Spanish, they need two things: first,
they need the vocabulary of literary and poetic terms and a sound understanding of the
meaning of these words, and second, they need extensive practice. Fortunately, the
content of the AP Spanish Literature course provides ample opportunity for practice, but
the teacher must start early and constantly reinforce the technique of analysis. When I
begin the year, I introduce the students to the power of poetry immediately and then use
the poetry on the reading list to teach them how to understand the poet’s art. The most
important lesson for them to learn is that there is a connection between what the poet
says and how he/she says it. Most high school Spanish students struggle to understand the
ideas of a poem without really understanding how the poet uses language to
communicate those ideas.
How can you help your students begin? As I said before, you first need to arm them with
the language they will need to speak and write in Spanish about poetry. An excellent place
to start is Wayside Publishing’s very helpful Study Guide for the New AP Spanish
Literature Course, entitled Azulejo. In addition to providing useful information on each
period and writer on the course syllabus, this book has an appendix of literary
terminology with a special section on understanding poetry. You can also go to almost
any good literary text for Spanish students, especially those intended for college classes. I
have included a list of these that I have found helpful at the end of this article. The
teacher’s guide to the two-volume set Abriendo puertas also gives very helpful
information about all the poetry on the reading list, in the answers to the questions posed
in the texts. Wherever you get your list of poetic terms, you need to require that students
both know and use these terms regularly in class discussions about poetry and in their
writing about poetry.
When I ask my students to consider poetry in Spanish, I take into account that most of
them have some experience reading poetry in their own language. I ask them to try to put
into their own words what poetry means to them and how this special use of language is
essentially different from prose. This helps them begin to understand that it is the
language of poetry, the way in which a poet chooses to construct a poem, that gives it its
power—and this is what they must learn to decipher and appreciate. As we go through
the year, I teach them that while a poem may at first seem mysterious and impenetrable,
there is really no mystery to the art of analyzing a poem, assuming that they have the tools
they need and the experience.
When they encounter the work of Pablo Neruda, as well as any other poet on the course
list, students need to know a little about his life and the circumstances in which he
produced his work. This helps them understand what influenced the poet’s point of view
and how he came to produce what they see before them in their anthology. Azulejo and
Abriendo puertas give a brief but helpful overview of Neruda’s works, and the AP
Literature teacher will undoubtedly have his/her own experience with Neruda. At the very
least, students need to know that Neruda’s work spans many decades and responded not
only to the changing circumstances in his life, but also to the changes in his perception of
poetry and its function. Selecting representative works for this course was no small task,
especially in the case of such a writer as Neruda. In any event, we are given three works to
consider: a love poem from his groundbreaking Veinte poemas de amor y una canción
desesperada (1924), a poem of existential angst from Residencia en la Tierra II (1935), and
finally a celebration of the ordinary from his Odas elementales (1954-57). These three
poems are quite different in their structure, their message, and their effect, so we can use
them to teach the students how to understand how a poem works.
As I stated earlier, the teacher’s ultimate goal is to help the students see the relationship
between the message of a poem and its form. Once you have given them some
background on Neruda and they have read the selected poem, they need to clarify what
the poet has said. Good anthologies like Abriendo puertas help students by defining words
they may be unfamiliar with, and I always begin by asking my students if they have any
additional words they were unable to find in their dictionaries. I teach them that the
words the poet selects are no accident, and the least we can do is make sure we know what
they mean! Of course, as they get into the poem, they will often see that a word is used in
an unexpected way and may have a special meaning, but they should start with the
obvious meanings. Sometimes I ask the students to write, in their own words, a one-
sentence prose summary of what each stanza in a poem states. For example, after reading
the first stanza of Neruda’s “Poema 15,” they might write: “En la primera estrofa, el poeta
dice que le gusta la sensación de estar lejos de su amor, cuando ella está durmiendo, por
ejemplo, porque entonces él puede contemplarla de una manera diferente.” This exercise
accomplishes two things: it forces students to focus intently on what the poet says, and it
gives them the chance to see the development of the theme throughout the poem. It also
provides a powerful contrast between the straightforward, literal language of prose and
the many ways a poet plays with language to achieve an effect.
Once students seem to understand the poet’s words, I then ask them to consider the
narrative voice. Who is speaking, and to whom is the message directed? For example, in
“Poema 15,” they can see that the poet is addressing, in the intimate second person, a
lover whose presence gives him joy. The next question I ask them is to describe the poet’s
tone—what is his attitude toward his subject? In my classroom we have a long list of
adjectives that we apply to the tone of a piece, starting with the very obvious “posi-
Once we have established the poet’s tone, I ask students to look at the poem’s structure. Is
there a recognizable pattern of verses and stanzas? Is there a regular rhythm? Does the
poet use rhyme? “Poema 15” is a good place to start with Neruda, because its structure is
so easy for students to recognize. They can quickly see the regularity of the poem’s struc-
ture—five stanzas of four lines, each line measuring approximately 14 syllables
(alejandrinos), with consonant rhyme in the even lines. I ask them to consider why the
poet might have chosen such a traditional form for this poem, as opposed to free verse. Is
his theme or its treatment traditional? What is the effect of the elegant alejandrinos? How
does the regularity of the lines and their regular cadence contribute to his message? I then
take them through the poem, stanza by stanza, asking them to look for the specific poetic
devices that accompany the progression of ideas throughout the poem. In addition, I ask
them to look for any change in tone. Overall, they can see that the principal metaphors of
the poem are absence and silence, while the images are predominantly natural. The most
obvious poetic device is the simile, which students can easily identify. I ask them to tell
me what these comparisons are telling us about the poet’s feelings for his beloved. He
compares her both to simple, earthly things, “claro como una lámpara, simple como un
anillo,” and to powerful, universal elements. “Eres como la noche, callada y constelada.” I
ask them to consider how the poet uses repetition to build emotion and reinforce the
power of his feelings. By the time they reach the final stanza, the famous first line “Me
gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente” (which they did not comprehend at
first) has been repeated and now has a very different effect on the reader, introducing the
final stanza and helping to close the poem with a final, joyful affirmation.
Moving from this poem to the poetry of Residencia en la Tierra is quite a shock for the
students, and they will need some background to explain both the different style and the
different message. Once they understand the circumstances which caused Neruda to feel
isolated and estranged from others, both linguistically and emotionally, it will be easier
for them to see where this poem is coming from. I like to compare these two Neruda
poems to two by Federico García Lorca: his early, very accessible “In Memoriam,” where
the poet makes a connection between the natural world and his own melancholy state of
mind, and “Vuelta de paseo,” from Poeta en Nueva York, where he feels victimized by the
cold inhumanity of New York City, and his images are shocking, surrealistic projections
of his inner turmoil. Just as Lorca brings us images of nature’s deformation on the streets
of New York, in Neruda’s “Walking around” the poet takes us on a journey through the
foreign world in which he lives, describing what he sees and how he feels as he walks.
Because this poem is so challenging, I approach it differently than the previous poem.
Rather than beginning with structure and tone, I ask my students to focus on the very
powerful, but strange, images of the poem. This approach helps them get to the emotional
heart of the poet’s message. They usually are struck by images like the following: “entro . .
. marchito, impenetrable como un cisne de fieltro/navegando en un agua de origen y
ceniza”; “No quiero continuar de raíz y de tumba,” and “Por eso el día lunes arde como el
petróleo/cuando me ve llegar con mi cara de cárcel.” Clearly, the poet feels desperately
disconnected from the world around him.
It is much harder for the student to penetrate this poem, since even when he/she knows
what the words mean, the images are still very unexpected and troubling. Fortunately, the
poet lets us know in the first line how he is feeling, and the rest of the poem serves to
explain his feelings. “Sucede que me canso de ser hombre” is repeated twice in the
opening stanzas, as well as his seeming rejection of his own being, as he states, “Sucede
que me canso de mis pies y mis uñas/y mi pelo y mi sombra.” Yet this is followed by
Neruda’s almost playful combination of whimsy and violence in the fourth stanza. “Sería
delicio-so/asustar a un notario con un lirio cortado/o dar muerte a una monja con un
golpe de oreja.” Stanzas five and six reiterate the poet’s desire to escape his reality (“No
quiero” is repeated three times), while stanzas seven through nine enumerate details that
combine the ordinary with the bizarre in a surrealistic progression (“hospitales donde los
huesos salen por la ventana”and “calles espantosas como grietas.”) The final stanza
presents the poet’s observations with mixed emotions (“con furia, con olvido”), of
inanimate objects that also cry out in pain.
Once they have tried to understand the poet’s ideas, students can look at the poem’s
structure and see that Neruda rejected the regularity of his earlier poem and employed
free verse and irregular stanzas to convey his disjointed emotional state. Having looked
carefully at the poem’s message, this now makes perfect sense to the student. What is the
effect of this irregularity on the poem’s rhythm? While most of his lines are long, varying
between 11 and 17 syllables, there are enough shorter lines to keep the reader off balance,
just as the poet felt out of balance with his world. When looking for poetic devices,
students can see that the use of similes and repetition has a different effect than in the first
poem. The similes in “Walking around” surprise us; the repeated phrases emphasize the
poet’s desperation. The use of lists joined by commas makes us feel like we are rushing
down the streets with the poet, bombarded by impressions that don’t make sense.
Students can see that Neruda’s tone is negative, pessimistic, and lonely. He seems to be
yearning for a simpler, less painful world—Sólo quiero un descanso de piedras o de lana/
sólo quiero no ver establecimientos ni jardines,” much as Lorca yearned for the tranquil
beauty of Andalucía when confronted with the soul-jarring visions of New York. As a
final activity, I sometimes ask my students to pick the most powerful image from a poem
like this or Lorca’s “Vuelta de paseo” and then try to draw it or illustrate it in some way.
What they come up with is often surprising and always interesting, and this tells me that
the poet has reached them on some level.
Now that my students are starting to be very intrigued by Neruda, they are in for a real
treat when we turn to “Oda a la alcachofa.” To begin with, I usually share several of my
favorite Neruda odes, so students can see the way the poet now delights in the world
around him and how he transforms it in a very different way than he did in “Walking
around.” Before we even begin to read the third poem on our list, I ask them to look at it
on the page; what is the effect of the many very short lines? Clearly, we will move quickly
through this poem, pausing only for the punctuation supplied by the poet, as he guides us
through his charming, whimsical tale of the artichoke. It is soon apparent that the poet’s
tone is light, as he presents the initial metaphor of the tender artichoke disguised as a
warrior. He continues by personifying the other vegetables in the garden, companions to
the proudly burnished artichoke, who awaits his military destiny. The poet describes their
journey to the market, continuing to give us the artichoke’s perspective, as he sees
military references in all that surrounds him. We scarcely have time to react when our
hero is plucked from the rows of the other vegetable warriors to be buried ignominiously
in the basket of Maria and then quickly delivered to the cooking pot. The poet does not
ask us to mourn the passing of the little “vegetal armado,” but merely remarks that the
artichoke’s tender, peaceful heart, first mentioned in line two of the poem, is worthy of
being savored. I was once told by a professor (too many years ago for me to remember
who it was!) that Neruda’s odes often follow the pattern we see in “Oda a la alcachofa”: an
initial metaphor, which is developed to its logical conclusion, followed by a kind of moral.
There are so many other wonderful odes to pick from that the teacher can easily find a
few to test this theory.
Once students have tried to understand how a poet uses language to convey meaning,
they should be ready to try some formal poetry analysis. By this I mean a formal essay,
with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, one that focuses on a specific question
and takes into account what the student knows about poetic language and how it works. I
recommend using the poems provided by ETS and the College Board from previous AP
Literature exams, as well as other poems by poets on the reading list. I have given my
students a kind of formula for success in this exercise, which they say has been helpful. I
am including two versions of this outline: one that is general, and one that relates to a
specific poem, fittingly for this article, a Neruda poem that appeared on the 2000 AP
Literature exam. A copy of that poem is also included.
I tell my students that it is very likely that the poem on the AP exam will be anonymous
or by someone they aren’t familiar with. No one expects them to make any kind of
biographical connection. Furthermore, the question almost always identifies the theme of
the poem. What they are expected to do is understand the poet’s use of language to
communicate the stated theme. You can use the scoring guidelines provided with the
(How to attack the poetry essay question of the AP Spanish Literature Exam)
STRATEGY:
1. Read the question and quickly see what the focus of your answer should be: el
desarrollo del tema, la voz poética, el uso de la naturaleza, etc.
2. Take a solid ten minutes to read the poem carefully, marking all the elements you
plan to mention. MAKE AN OUTLINE that you will follow in your essay.
3. Write for the remaining 20-30 minutes, carefully making specific references to
the poem, always staying with the topic and aiming to arrive at a strong
conclusion.
1. Make an opening statement: ¿De qué se trata el poema? ¿Qué nos dice el poeta?
¿Cuál es su tema central?
2. Consider the poetic voice/point of view: ¿Quién habla? ¿A quíen se dirige?
3. Comment on the poet’s tone/attitude. ¿Es su tratamiento del tema personal o
impersonal? ¿Es positivo, negativo o ambiguo? This is the place where you focus
on the poet’s use of language: what specific images, metaphors, similes,
symbols, and descriptive language make the tone clear to us? Does the poet use
first person and second person to make it more intimate? Does he use commands
or exclamations to emphasize or questions to suggest?
4. Comment on the poem’s structure: Is it a recognizable poetic form, like a sonnet,
with a regular rhyme scheme and metric pattern? Is it free verse? Is there any use
of assonance? Are the lines short or long? Most of all, make a connection
between these techniques and the poem’s message. Does the poem move quickly
and powerfully to a big conclusion to underscore the poet’s assertions or strong
feelings? Does it start in one place and end up somewhere else? That is, is there a
change in the tone or the development of a theme? Are lines or images repeated
for emphasis? How does it make us feel?
Conclude with a final statement on the poem’s message (or whatever element the
question focuses on), emphasizing the final connection between the poet’s message
and the poem’s structure.
I. OPENING: Focus on the question and let the reader know the direction that you
will take in your answer. You can restate the question, but don’t just repeat it. The
most important thing is to take a stand! It’s OK to mention some techniques that you
plan to discuss, letting the reader know right away what your focus will be.
II. BODY: Analyze the language and structure of the poem. Start with the poet’s
language. If there are very obvious poetic devices that stand out, go ahead and
present them next (for example, the extended metaphor of the wind as a horse). This
is where you must mention specific language that conveys the poet’s ideas, sets the
tone, and reinforces the theme. (For example, you might discuss his desire to find
refuge from the storm: “Escóndeme en tus brazos… por esta noche sola descansaré,
amor mío” or the powerful appeal of the outside world: “el viento me llama galopando
para llevarme lejos”, in contrast with the powerful attraction of his love: “atados
nuestros cuerpos al amor que nos quema”.) Early on describe the poet’s tone. To
whom or about whom is the poet speaking? How does the poet feel about what he is
saying? Is it abstract, philosophical, objective or very personal, introspective,
intimate? Don’t just say, “The poet’s tone is melancholy, angry, or critical, but rather
tell HOW you know that, with specific examples. Is he celebrating, condemning,
questioning, or merely describing? Mention whether the tone is consistent
throughout the poem, or if it changes. If it changes, say when and how.
Everything you mention should be connected to your initial focus on the question:
how does the poet’s language convey/reinforce the message? Beware of merely
listing poetic devices with no comment on their effect or purpose!
Be sure to comment on the structure of the poem. Describe the stanza and the length
of lines. Is the poem’s structure regular or irregular? Is there rhyme? If so, what kind?
What connection is there between the poet’s message and the poem’s form? What is
the effect of a fixed verse form such as a sonnet as opposed to free verse, of regular
rhyme as opposed to no rhyme, of the more powerful consonance as opposed to
III. CONCLUSION: The best way to end your essay is by focusing on the overall effect
of the poem. You have already told how the language and the form of the poem serve
the poet’s purpose. Now tell how it affects the reader. Close with a reference to your
original thesis, making it clear that you have arrived at your goal! (You can reiterate
the poem’s message and its impact, confirming how the poet achieved it.)
Ejemplo: Neruda nos deja con una fuerte sensación de sus sentimientos divididos.
Hemos oído el viento y sentido la lluvia, pero, como él, hemos encontrado un refugio
momentáneo en el amor.
Ejemplo 1
Analiza cómo se manifiesta el tema de la fugacidad de la vida en el siguiente poema. En tu
análisis debes comentar el lenguaje poético y los recursos técnicos que usa el poeta (la
poeta) para comunicar este tema. Tu ensayo debe incluir ejemplos del poema que apoyen
tus ideas.
El pájaro
El texto de este poema de Octavio Paz se puede encontrar en los siguientes sitios web:
http://www.poesia-inter.net/op01029.htm
http://www.americas-fr.com/litterature/pajaro.html
http://www.avantel.net/~eoropesa/poesia/opaz1.html#opaz_6
http://wunder.4t.com/pag5.html
Ejemplo 2
Analiza la visión de la vida que se presenta el siguiente poema. En tu análisis debes
comentar el lenguaje poético y los recursos técnicos que usa el poeta para esta
presentación. Tu ensayo debe incluir ejemplos del poema que apoyen tus ideas.
Biografía
No cojas la cuchara con la mano izquierda.
No pongas los codos en la mesa.
Dobla bien la servilleta.
verso Eso, para empezar.
5 Extraiga la raíz cuadrada de tres mil trescientos trece.
¿Dónde está Tanganika? ¿Qué año nació Cervantes?
Le pondré un cero en conducta si habla con su compañero.
Eso, para seguir.
¿Le parece a usted correcto que un ingeniero haga versos?
10 La cultura es un adorno y el negocio es el negocio.
Si sigues con esa chica te cerraremos las puertas.
Eso, para vivir.
No seas tan loco. Sé educado. Sé correcto.
No bebas. No fumes. No tosas. No respires.
15 ¡Ay, sí, no respirar! Dar el no a todos los nos.
Y descansar: morir.
Type A: An essay analyzing how a given theme is treated in a particular work from the
required reading list. (At least two works are listed in the exam, from which the candidate
must choose one.)
Type B: An essay analyzing how a given theme and/or topic is treated in two works from
the required reading list. (Two or more works are listed in the exam, from which the can-
didate must choose two).
Type A
Muchas obras presentan un comentario por la voz poética de su identidad. Escoge UNO
de los poemas siguientes y escribe un ensayo en que analices este tema en el poema. Tu
ensayo debe incluir ejemplos del texto que apoyen tus ideas.
Autorretrato
Yo soy una señora: tratamiento
arduo de conseguir, en mi caso, y más útil
para alternar con los demás que un título
extendido a mi nombre en cualquier academia.
verso
5 Así, pues, luzco mi trofeo y repito:
yo soy una señora. Gorda o flaca
según las posiciones de los astros,
los ciclos glandulares
y otros fenómenos que no comprendo.
A Julia de Burgos
Ya las gentes murmuran que yo soy tu enemiga
porque dicen que en verso doy al mundo mi yo.
Type B
En algunos de los poemas que has leído, la naturaleza hace un papel importante. Escoge
DOS de los poemas siguientes. Escribe un ensayo que compare el papel de la naturaleza
en las dos obras. Tu ensayo debe incluir ejemplos de los textos que apoyen tus ideas.
Rima LIII
Volverán las oscuras golondrinas
en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar,
y otra vez con el ala a sus cristales
jugando llamarán.
verso
5 Pero aquellas que el vuelo refrenaban
tu hermosura y mi dicha contemplar,
aquellas que aprendieron nuestros nombres...
ésas... ¡no volverán!
La primavera besaba
Antonio Machado
http://www.poesia-inter.net/amach085.htm
http://palabravirtual.com/index.php?ir=ver_poema1.php&pid=8492
http://www.me.gov.ar/efeme/21desetiembre/primavera/pribesa.html
http://www.elratondebiblioteca.net/versomayo7.htm
Soneto XXIII
Type A
Short answers on two or three open-ended questions about an excerpt from a work on the
required reading list. (The excerpt is printed in the exam.)
Ejemplo 1
Anónimo.
Ejemplo 2
Rima XI
—Yo soy ardiente, yo soy morena,
yo soy el símbolo de la pasión;
de ansia de goces mi alma está llena.
¿A mí me buscas?
–No es a ti, no.
verso
5 —Mi frente es pálida, mis trenzas de oro:
puedo brindarte dichas sin fin,
yo de ternuras guardo un tesoro.
¿A mí me llamas?
–No: no es a ti.
Ejemplo 3
1. ¿Cuál es la relación entre las estrofas de este poema con respecto a su forma y su
contenido?
Introduction
This poetry module, AP® Spanish Literature: Practice with Multiple-Choice Poetry
Analysis, was created to provide a tool to teachers and students that could help students
gain additional practice with the multiple-choice section of the AP Spanish Literature
Exam. The questions included represent actual questions dealing with poetry from
released AP Spanish Literature Exams since 1985. The author has prepared a very
thorough explanation of the rationale for the correct answers while providing test-taking
tips and question-answering strategies. This author has worked with high school students
and has prepared an instructive explanation of her experiences, which will be very useful
to current teachers and students of AP Spanish Literature classes.
The module's main emphasis is to explain how to approach a multiple-choice item. For
each item on the exam, students are asked to do the following:
1. Students must have ample opportunity to read, discuss, and analyze poetry throughout
the AP Spanish Literature course. Students must become familiar with the terminology of
poetry analysis.
2. Students must practice test taking. Once the majority of the selections have been
studied and the students are familiar with the terminology, teachers should give this
poetry module to students to allow them time to practice before the AP Exam. It can be
given as (a) an independent study, where students practice the test at home and read the
explanations on their own, or (b) class work, where students practice test sections of this
module individually, read the module explanations, and subsequently, in a class
discussion, clarify any difficulties.
We are especially pleased with the approach and the usefulness of this module. Our hope
is that the poetic terminology as defined in the explanations will provide a good review
for the students.
Sincerely,
Jim Cardella
(A) 6, 8 y 9 sílabas
(B) 7, 8 y 9 sílabas
(C) 6 y 8 sílabas
(D) 6 y 9 sílabas
5. ¿Cuál de las siguientes afirmaciones refleja mejor el tema central del poema?
6. ¿Qué efecto tiene en el poema el uso de la ronda infantil “— ¡Tun, tun!/ — ¿Quién
es?” (estrofas 3-6)?
1. D This one is easy for students to see; the poet opens the door to symbols of
peace, beauty, and friendship, while closing the door on anything violent,
threatening, and harmful.
2. A After each of the four "¡Tun, tun!" lines, the response is "¿Quién es?," clearly
indicating that someone is knocking at the gate in the wall.
3. C You can eliminate answers B and D, since adding the extra syllables does
not maintain the eight-syllable line, but rather interrupts that pattern, and
since the regular use of consonant rhyme is also interrupted by the
nonrhyming "Ay" and "bien." (In order to figure this out, students merely
need to be familiar with the poetic terms in the answers.) Clearly, what the
extra two syllables accomplish is a break in the regular rhythm of the lines,
which is what answer C gives us. As for answer A, there is no indication
whatsoever of the poet's pain or sorrow.
4. C In order to get this one right, students need to learn how to scan lines of
poetry in Spanish. This can be simple if they know the rules and if they
have been given the chance to practice. Counting syllables involves the
rule that lines ending in a one-syllable word (line 34, "flor") or a word
stressed on the last syllable (line 28, "puñal") get an extra count; both these
lines are, thereby, "versos agudos," and the one count is added not at the
poet's discretion but as a matter of course.
If C is the correct answer, then only (1) or (2) apply to the question, not
(3) or (4). If we consider for a moment that (3) may be the poet's choice,
then the stanza would be composed of six-, seven-, and eight-syllable lines,
and there is no correct answer. Option (4), which would make A the
correct answer, is implausible since the stanza elsewhere exhibits an
alternating rhythm—eight and six, eight and six—throughout.
If students are not aware either of the extra count added to a verso agudo
or of sinalefa, they would select the correct answer, C. Grammatically, line
28 contains eight grammatical syllables.
The next section requires students to compare two poems, and my advice to them is to
skim the two poems quickly to get a sense of each, before focusing on the questions. Then
they can zero in on each poem as the questions require and avoid wasting time struggling
with concepts or language that are not addressed in the questions.
I II
1
¹Quién fuera pato: I long to be a duck trinos: trills
2
²pamplina: silliness espejeo: shimmering
3
³bocina: horn oleaje: waves
(A) trascendente
(B) religioso
(C) psicológico
(D) científico
(A) angustia
(B) duda
(C) libertad
(D) realidad
9. En el primer poema, los versos 3-5 (“pato para viajar sin pasaporte/ y repasar, pasar,
pasar, fronteras/ como quien pasa el rato”) son un buen ejemplo de
(A) metáfora
(B) aliteración
(C) hipérbole
(D) antítesis
10. El último verso del primer poema (“tocando la bocina”) es una metáfora del
11. El uso del diminutivo “patito” en el primer poema indica que la actitud del poeta
hacia el ave es
(A) orgullosa
(B) afectuosa
(C) peyorativa
(D) indiferente
(A) erótico
(B) pesimista
(C) intelectual
(D) juguetón
14. ¿Qué contraste plantea el autor del segundo poema en cuanto al pájaro?
(A) filosófico
(B) amoroso
(C) caprichoso
(D) didáctico
17. ¿Cómo se diferencian las imágenes del ave en los dos poemas?
(A) Paradoja
(B) Preguntas retóricas
(C) Apóstrofe
(D) La forma familiar del verbo
7. A My students only found this question tricky if they did not know the
meaning of the word "trascendente." But even if this were the case, they
would be able to eliminate the other three answers, whose meanings were
familiar to them and which were clearly unrelated to either poem. (My
advice to teachers is to work hard all year long so that your students have a
rich vocabulary. You can use the answers on practices like these to
generate a list of adjectives likely to appear on this exam. I have attached a
sample vocabulary list at the end of this practice packet.) Why are the
concepts of birds in these two poems "transcendent"? Because they go
beyond the commonly accepted ideas of these creatures, one humorously
and one philosophically.
Note: Students can be coached to guess at the meaning of words they don't
know by recognizing standard meanings of prefixes and roots: tras-
generally means across or beyond, and -scend relates to going—to ascend,
to go up; to descend, to go down—so that they may conclude correctly that
trascendente describes a thing that goes beyond.
10. D The poet's reference to the duck's quacking as "blowing his horn" should
be clear to students. It is certainly not a reference to movement or touch,
and they should recognize that it is not a literal reference to the sounds of
traffic, since in the question itself we are told that it is a metaphor!
11. B Once again—if students know their vocabulary, they will see that the use
of the diminutive ending so common in Spanish is neither pejorative,
prideful, nor indifferent on the poet's part, but affectionate.
12. D Students will recognize that answers A and B have nothing to do with this
poem, but some students may miss this one and select C if they don't know
what juguetón means. We hope that the average AP Literature student can
make the connection between the unfamiliar juguetón and their old friend
jugar. The ability to make these connections that seem so obvious to the
teacher is something that should be encouraged as students learn to read
well in Spanish.
13. B Apostrophe is the use of direct address in a line of poetry. Only answer B
contains an example of this device.
14. C This question is one of the most challenging in this section, because it asks
students to deal with abstract concepts. Most can eliminate B and D, since
there are no references to a contrast between these elements. Most will
correctly conclude that intimidad and frialdad are not logical opposites.
This leaves them with A and C. Their task, then, is to find evidence for one
of these two choices. If they carefully reread the poem, they will see many
references to answer C, such as a single bird with a thousand wings, a great
unique bird multiplying its loneliness in thousands of images, an immense
plurality, a numberless flock, etc. While earth and sky are mentioned, they
are not contrasted.
15. D This question makes sense if students correctly answered the previous
question. Answers B and C are irrelevant, and answer A is too literal.
Answer D ties in directly with the philosophical questioning of the essence
of things suggested in question 14.
16. A Students should know that a poet's tone reflects his/her attitude toward the
concepts expressed in a poem. Once again, knowledge of vocabulary is
crucial. Once students comprehend the four choices, it should be clear that
only answer A ties in with the ideas presented in the previous two
questions. This is clearly not a love poem, nor is it whimsical like the first
poem. The poet is not trying to teach a specific lesson, but instead to pose
a philosophical question.
17. A My students found that the key to answering this question lay in
recognizing that some of the paired choices were simply impossible. Poem
2 is simply not comical, nor is Poem 1 to be taken seriously. Likewise,
18. D After answering the other questions, the students should see that only
answer D fits. There is no way the other three themes can be justified,
based on the reading of the poem that the other questions have led us to
do.
19. B If students know what a paradox is and what apostrophe means, they are
only left with answers B and D. At this point I advise students to reread the
question. Do both poets use the familiar voice? No, the second poet is very
impersonal in his questioning. Do they both ask us, rhetorically, to
consider something new in our views of the world for which no clear
answer is given? Yes, they do, so the best choice is B.
Mar distante
20. B Without reading all five questions, students often think that this is a love
poem, mainly because of what they think they see in the last line. (On first
reading, most of my students pick D, because they think that "ella" can
only refer to a woman. They know it can't refer to "el mar," and they don't
notice that the antecedent to this pronoun is "idea.") However, once they
have read the other four questions, they usually come back and change
their answer to this one, if they are paying attention!
21. D Those who think this is a love poem will pick C, feeling that they are on
the trail of some obvious connections. Some will insist on answer B
because of what they see as the poet's seeming contradictions throughout
the poem. (If it isn't this, then it is this, etc.) Nobody thinks it is answer A,
thankfully. Those who have paid attention to the last two questions see
why the answer is D.
I usually get a lot of spirited debate about this poem, because some
students believe that we can never know what a poet was really thinking
when he/she created a poem. While I agree that we can often offer more
than one possible interpretation of a poem (especially if it appears out of
personal or literary context), I point out that on this exam there is always
something in the poem that they can base their answer on, if they are
skilled readers and if they start to understand how these questions work.
It's also true that all the context that's needed is present in the poem itself.
An accurate judgment on something like the central image of a poem is
derived from the evidence of the poem itself and doesn't depend on
external things like the poet's personal life or the literary tendency he/she
may belong to. This conversation makes for a great lesson on how to read
a poem, and it shows them that they can learn how to approach this exam,
given lots of practice!
22. D My students guessed on this one, since they didn't recognize answer D as a
literary device. However, they knew for sure that B and C were wrong, and
they could make an educated guess based on what the term paralelismo
seemed to imply, a series of parallel statements, which in fact do recur
throughout the poem. Students need to be able to make educated guesses
in cases like this!
24. B A and D are irrelevant. Our lovers chose C, but our philosophers chose B,
correctly. So, what do you tell students who really miss the boat in their
reading of a poem and who are never clued in by the direction that the
questions are taking? I tell them that they will get better at this with
practice, but that no one gets them all right. I advise them to do their best
and move on!
This poem seems pretty transparent to me, and most of my students did not find the
questions difficult.
Ayer
34. La actitud de los niños hacia la “lenta avioneta” (versos 10-11) indica que
(A) crítica
(B) ironía
(C) alegría
(D) desesperación
36. El “día incomparable” del que habla el narrador en los versos 37-38 es un
(A) lunes
(B) miércoles
(C) jueves
(D) viernes
(A) contento
(B) indiferencia
(C) pesimismo
(D) nostalgia
(A) juguetón
(B) amoroso
(C) contemplativo
(D) despreciativo
33. B Most students realized that this poem was about time, with its constant
references to yesterday, today, and the changes that took place.
34. A If the children did not even bother to look up at the small plane, it seems
pretty clear that they were indifferent to its passing. The other answers
have no basis in the poem.
36. B Since the first line of the poem identifies "ayer" as miércoles, there seems
little doubt that at the poem's end it remains the same.
37. D The narrator accepts that time marches on ("y nadie pudo impedir que al
final amaneciese el día de hoy"), but he wants to hang on to his memories
of yesterday ("dejadme que os hable de ayer, una vez más de ayer"), which
he calls an incomparable day never to be seen again—this is neither
contentment nor pessimism nor indifference, but nostalgia.
38. C The key to this question is, once again, in recognition of vocabulary. The
poem cannot be viewed as playful, amorous, or scornful. It is a thoughtful
look at the passage of time.
¿Te acuerdas?
Enrique González
(reprinted with the permission of
Ana Rosa Matute de González Rojo)
39. El poeta utiliza las imágenes “la sangre de la rosa” y “la nieve del jazmín” (versos 10-
11) para destacar
(A) auditivas
(B) cromáticas
(C) visuales
(D) sensuales
41. ¿Cómo pueden interpretarse los versos “… ¿Te acuerdas de la tarde en que vieron mis
ojos/de la vida profunda el alma de cristal?...
(A) irónico
(B) impersonal
(C) humorístico
(D) íntimo
39. B In the second stanza, the poet says that his eyes were made to perceive
things like line and color. The colors of the rose and the snow fit in with
this idea, and none of the other choices make any sense in this context.
40. A The voices of birds, the ballad of the wind, the song of the shepherd—all
these are auditory images. The only word some of my students were
unsure of was "cromáticas," which refers to colors.
42. D This one is simple if students know what the words mean. There is no
humor or irony in the poem, and the use of the second person makes the
tone personal, not impersonal.
43. D We eliminated A and B, since we had already seen that the poem is not
about the passage of time. Choosing between C and D was harder. While
there are many references to nature in the poem and how the poet reacts
to natural elements, the poet seems nostalgic not for the faded images, but
for the moment in which he glimpsed some meaning ("la tarde en que
vieron mis ojos de la vida profunda el alma de cristal").
Now that this poem is part of our reading list, we have all studied it with care, but let's go
through it anyway. What you will see is that of the six questions, half require knowledge
of poetic devices, and the other half deal with the poem's meaning.
Lo fatal
Rubén Darío.
45. ¿Qué figura retórica se consigue con la reiteración de la conjunción “y” en las estrofas
dos y tres?
(A) Epíteto
(B) Polisíndeton
(C) Metonimia
(D) Hipérbaton
48. ¿Cuál de las siguientes afirmaciones describe mejor la rima de este poema?
44. A The rock does not feel and the tree is insensitive, so they both lack the
ability to suffer.
48. B Students should know the difference between assonant and consonant
rhyme. While assonance only involves similar vowel sounds from the
vowel of the last stressed syllable to the end of a line of poetry, consonant
rhyme involves both the vowels and the consonants. In English it is known
as "perfect" or "masculine" rhyme.
Tú me quieres blanca
(A) pentasílabos
(B) hexasílabos
(C) heptasílabos
(D) octosílabos
56. En los versos 15-22 (“Tú… Baco”.), ¿qué simbolizan la comida y la bebida?
57. La expresión entre paréntesis “Dios te lo perdone” (versos 32-34), le añade al poema
un toque de
(A) ironía
(B) autoridad
(C) inocencia
(D) religiosidad
(A) El polisíndeton
(B) El símil
(C) La enumeración
(D) La antítesis
59. En los versos 36-49 (“Huye…alba”.), ¿qué puede inferirse con respecto a los
elementos naturales?
(A) Hipócrita
(B) Acusadora
(C) Sentimental
(D) Maternal
(A) sarcástico
(B) nostálgico
(C) patético
(D) didáctico
55. B Teach students the names for the different lines of poetry based on the
number of syllables, just in case they get a question like this. If they have
learned to scan the lines and know their vocabulary, they will know that
these lines mainly contain six syllables, making them "hexasílabos."
56. D The speaker in this poem is a woman, and she is addressing the man who
has required a purity of her that he himself cannot claim. She places him in
a banquet where he eats and drinks, clearly due to the pleasure it brings
him. The reference to "Baco," the god of wine, and his libertine ways, helps
clarify this.
57. A The poet asks God to forgive the man for his unreasonable expectations of
her, in the face of his own hypocrisy. By putting these lines in parentheses,
she presents them as an aside, almost to herself, and the anger that she
shows throughout the poem makes it clear that she does not really think
the man should be forgiven.
58. C My students did not recognize the term enumeración, but they did know
that the other answers were incorrect. They figured out that the poet was
listing (enumerating) what the man needed to do to purify himself, before
he was qualified to ask for purity in the woman.
59. C The poet is equating the natural elements with the possibility of the man's
purification, as stated in the last question. This process is not physical, but
spiritual.
60. A My students thought this was the easiest question, since white is so
commonly associated with purity, cleanliness, and virtue, while the use of
purple, red, and black highlight the man's corruption, so clearly in contrast
to what he expects of the woman.
61. B By this point, we can see that the woman is accusing the man of hypocrisy,
a double standard. However, the tone of the poem is not hypocritical,
which most students will recognize.
Cuando tenemos que hablar o escribir de una obra literaria, es útil saber muchas palabras
específicas. Si queremos describir a un personaje, hablar de la actitud de un autor hacia su
obra (el tono) o analizar la manera en que un autor presenta sus temas, debemos tratar de
evitar términos que sólo comunican conceptos generales, como “bueno,” “malo,”
“interesante,” etc. Aquí tienen algunos adjetivos que pueden servir para decir algo más
preciso.
abandono cariño
abatimiento—desánimo; decaimiento celebración—festejo; alabanza
físico o moral; desfallecimiento celo—esmero, interés ardiente
abnegación—voluntad de ponerse al certidumbre—certeza moral
servicio incondicional de algo o
alguien compromiso (adjetivo:
comprometido)—enfoque en la
aborrecimiento—odio crítica o denuncia política o social
absorción—embeleso, o sujeción entera conformidad—resignación
a una influencia irresistible
congoja (adjetivo: acongojado)—pena;
abulia—apatía, desgana gran dolor del alma
aburrimiento—hastío, tedio, cansancio contemplación—meditación
aceptación—conformidad contentamiento
acrimonia—acritud, aspereza controversia (adjetivo: controvertido)—
adoración manifestación de fuertes diferencias
de opinión sobre algo
aflicción—angustia; sufrimiento moral o
físico contento
aislamiento—separación de uno de los decepción—desilusión
otros desafío—reto
alborozo—alegría manifestada desaliento—decaimiento del ánimo,
exteriormente desmayo
alegría desconsuelo
amenaza desilusión—pérdida de las ilusiones;
amor desengaño
angustia—pena, congoja desinterés (adjetivo: desinteresado)
imparcialidad; lo opuesto al
ansiedad—inquietud del ánimo
sentimiento egoísta que incita a
ardor—pasión amorosa buscar el provecho
arrogancia desolación—sensación que nace de la
asombro destrucción y pérdida completas de
todo lo que es de valor
aspereza—acritud, mordacidad
doloroso impersonal
dramático inmaduro
emocionante insatisfecho
escueto—conciso íntimo
templado—moderado
Marina Llorente: ¿Cómo nació en ti el deseo de escribir, de ser poeta? y ¿por qué
escribes?
El deseo de ser poeta, o de vivir con la poesía vino después, cuando ya llevaba muchos
poemas escritos y constaté que no quería dedicarme a ninguna otra cosa. Tiene algo de
vocación y algo de profesión la tarea de escribir.
AL: Una manera de vivir, la única desde la que me puedo imaginar a mí misma. Si
abandonara la poesía, yo no sería el mismo yo.
AL: Los clásicos griegos y latinos: Safo y los demás líricos arcaicos, Platón, la
Antología Palatina, Catulo, Horacio, Ovidio y Virgilio.
Las novelistas Virginia Woolf (por su manera de detener el lenguaje sobre los
objetos y personajes) y Marguerite Yourcenar, por los mundos soberbios que sabe
poner en pie.
ML: Si tuvieras que hacer una lista de poetas canónicos ¿a quién incluirías y a quién no
incluirías y por qué?
AL: La confección del canon se la vamos a dejar a los entendidos que se hacen ricos
escribiendo libros sobre el canon; yo ya he citado a mis indispensables.
ML: Describe tu evolución como poeta a partir de tus poemarios. ¿Cuáles son las
diferencias y las similitudes entre el primer libro de poemas y el último que acabas
de publicar?
AL: Estos días precisamente estoy muy ocupada con la revisión de las pruebas de mi
traducción de los poemas y testimonios de Safo, que me ha ocupado casi veinte
años y que por fin aparece en junio en la editorial El Acantilado de Barcelona.
Cada época necesita nuevas traducciones, revisiones y relecturas de toda la
tradición: en el caso de las escritoras, esta tarea es más urgente porque en algunos
casos no se ha hecho nunca. Hay escritoras verdaderamente olvidadas en las
oscuridades de los siglos, apartadas por un olvido interesado. Te puedo dar
nombres: la cubana Mercedes Matamoros; la dramaturga malagueña María Rosa
Gálvez, que escribió muy dignos dramas ilustrados con críticas agudas contra el
esclavismo o contra los prejuicios y el parasitismo de las clases aristocráticas ¡en la
España de finales del siglo XVIII!
AL: Aunque digan lo contrario, todos los poetas parten de su experiencia al escribir.
Mi experiencia incluye las vivencias cotidianas, pero también es una experiencia
útil para la poesía la lectura, por ejemplo, de un determinado libro o la
contemplación de un determinado cuadro. Siempre ha habido un diálogo entre
los artistas de todas las épocas. Lo que ocurre es que ahora parece tener cierto
prestigio añadido—al menos en España—la poesía confeccionada a partir de la
realidad real, cotidiana e inmediata. Algunos poetas se despojan voluntariamente
de las vivencias y aprendizajes que proceden de una—digamos—elaboración
cultural. Yo creo que esta actitud acaba empobreciendo la escritura.
ML: Cuando analizas poemas en tus clases ¿a qué le das más importancia? ¿de qué
manera haces llegar el poema a tus alumnos?
ML: ¿Influye de alguna manera tu oficio de poeta en la enseñanza de tus clases? ¿Has
analizado alguna vez uno de tus poemas en alguna de tus clases?
AL: No analizo mis poemas en mis propias clases porque me dedico a la enseñanza del
griego y del latín. Pero suelo dar bastantes lecturas en otros centros de
bachillerato. Entonces les digo a los oyentes que olviden que la poesía es parte de
una asignatura académica, que recuerden que se inventó para ser cantada, que
nació como letra de una canción, que nuestras canciones favoritas llevan dentro
seguramente un buen poema.
AL: Quizás no directamente. Pero ayuda a tener una conciencia más lúcida del
lenguaje. Pensamos con palabras; el poder se ejerce, en nuestras sociedades
mediáticas, a través de la palabra. Si conocemos a fondo las trampas y los límites
interesados del lenguaje también podremos descubrir al especulador sin
escrúpulos, al falso profeta o al vendepatrias de turno.
AL: Que lea toda la poesía posible para conocer el oficio; que no haga caso de las
críticas de los suplementos literarios; que intente no perder nunca la capacidad de
asombro de la infancia; que viaje fuera de los circuitos convencionales.
AL: No creo que haya influido directamente. Acepté el encargo de escribir dos
artículos semanales de opinión en el Diario Sur de Málaga porque quería
investigar nuevos registros. El columnismo periodístico me ha enseñado la
velocidad: hay que entregar el artículo a una determinada hora, no caben demoras
ni preciosismos. Me ha quitado pereza. Por otro lado, me ha obligado a
informarme mejor sobre temas de la actualidad en los que no se suele profundizar
desde la poesía. Es estimulante ese contacto casi inmediato con los lectores, que a
veces te reconocen por la calle. La poesía tiene un público silencioso y diferido:
hay más soledad en torno a ella.
Fecha de caducidad
Desolación de la sirena
Contributors
Information current as of original publish date of September 2004.
Rita Goldberg is Dana Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at St. Lawrence
University. Although her research field is Spanish poetry and music of the Golden age,
she is also active in the area of technology for teaching. She has chaired the Development
Committee and recently completed a term as Chief Reader. Rita holds degrees from
Queens College, Middlebury College and Brown University and divides her time between
upstate New York and Madrid.
Ken Stewart teaches Spanish and chairs the world languages department at Chapel Hill
High School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He leads workshops and summer institutes
as a consultant for the College Board AP Spanish Program and has served as a Reader and
Table Leader for the AP Spanish Exam. He also serves as the content advisor for Spanish
Language on AP Central. In 2003, Ken received his National Board certification in world
languages. In 1998, he was named Central North Carolina Teacher of the Year, in 2004 he
was named North Carolina Foreign Language Teacher of the Year, and in 2005 he was
recognized as the first ACTFEL National Teacher of the Year.
Gustavo Fares, originally from Argentina, has been teaching in the United States for
almost two decades. Since 2002 he has been a member of the Development Committee
and a College Board consultant. Currently he is the chairperson of the Spanish
Department at Lawrence University. Dr. Fares graduated from the University of
Pittsburgh with a Ph.D. in Latin American literature, a Ph.D. certificate in cultural
studies, and a certificate in Latin American studies. Prior to coming to the United States
he studied law and fine arts in Argentina. In 2005 he began a term as chair of the
Development Committee.
Ana Goicoa Colbert received her undergraduate degree at the Universidad de Navarra in
Pamplona and a masters in Education at Harvard University. She has taught Spanish
language and literature at both the college and secondary levels. Since 1984 she has taught
at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, where she has taught all levels of Spanish,
from beginning through AP Spanish Language and Literature, and including Spanish
cinema.
Gilda Nissenberg holds a Ph.D. in Spanish literature from City University of New York.
She has taught AP Spanish Language and Literature in Miami-Dade County Public
Schools for 17 years. She has also served as an AP Reader, as a College Board consultant
at various AP workshops and summer institutes in the Southern Region, and on the SAT
Spanish Committee.
Sandy Williamson has taught all levels of Spanish in North Carolina for 29 years,
including AP Spanish Literature since 1985. She was a Carnegie-Mellon Fellow at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985-86 and a Fulbright Exchange teacher
in Argentina in 1990. Williamson presented ideas for teaching literature to AP students as
well as students in the Pre-AP years at the 2001 AATSP National Conference. She is
currently teaching at East Chapel Hill High School.